REPORT UN Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs): Inciting Hatred, Antisemitism and Violence from the World Stage Electronic version at www.humanrightsvoices.org September 2016 Table of Contents Introduction The Rules I. What are UN NGOs? II. Ways to Get Accreditation or Association III. Benefits of Accreditation or Association IV. Promises by UN NGOs in order to get Accreditation or Association 3 6 6 6 8 9 Breaking the Promises I. Inciting Hate or Encouraging Antisemitism 11 11 30 46 63 II. Condoning or Justifying Violence III. Demonizing the State of Israel IV. Delegitimizing the State of Israel and Seeking the Destruction of the Jewish State 2 Introduction* The United Nations was founded as a global pact among states, but over the decades ­ in the name of transparency and openness, and in order to further the aim of globalization ­ the UN has opened its doors to non-governmental organizations. More than 6,150 NGOs have been invited to participate on a yearround basis in UN activities, and have thus been handed a coveted global megaphone. An examination of these NGOs, however, reveals that both by design and gross negligence on the part of UN member states, the NGOs' ranks include bigots, antisemites, and terrorist advocates who are now spreading hatred and inciting violence from the world stage. Democratic states, led by the United States, control the purse strings of the United Nations either from within the UN bureaucracy or through domestic policy. Getting serious about combating the spread of intolerance and violent extremism means putting an immediate stop to the use and abuse of the United Nations to broadcast and support xenophobia and its lethal consequences. In theory, the UN has processes for accreditation that share a common requirement: respect for the purposes and principles of the UN itself. In order to qualify for accreditation or association, NGOs must operate in conformity with, or promote, the UN Charter. They must affirm "faith in fundamental human rights, in the dignity and worth of the human person, in the equal rights of men and women and of nations large and small." In practice, accredited non-governmental organizations have been allowed to flaunt the core of the UN mission by advocating terror and intolerance. At the same time, they have been permitted to draw closer to the world of international diplomacy and gain access to the international media platforms associated with it. Most striking for an organization founded on the ashes of the Holocaust, the UN enables its accredited NGOs to play a central role in promoting modern antisemitism. Although the preamble of the UN Charter promises the equal rights of nations large and small, UN-accredited NGOs foster the destruction of the UN member state of Israel. The benefits of UN accreditation for NGOs are tangible and significant. UN-accredited NGOs are able to secure meeting space within UN buildings to sponsor speakers, mount exhibits, and screen films, all within immediate proximity to the world's press. Major media organizations from across the planet have in-house office space at UN headquarters in New York and Geneva. NGOs can speak at important UN meetings and have their words translated and broadcast globally via UN webcasts, which are then archived for the public, researchers, and students from elementary schools to college campuses. UN-accredited NGOs can submit written statements to UN bodies that are assigned official UN symbol numbers, posted on UN websites, and archived in searchable formats for the global community. More recently, UN websites have started linking directly to NGO websites, greatly enhancing traffic to the NGO websites and the promulgation of the NGOs' messages. UN-accredited NGOs are also invited to attend negotiating sessions and decision-making forums, thereby gaining access to the world's diplomatic corps, with the attendant opportunities for influence. * Anne Bayefsky, Director, Touro Institute on Human Rights and the Holocaust, President, Human Rights Voices, and Sarah Willig, Research Fellow, Human Rights Voices. Thanks to Sarah Firestone, Research Assistant, Human Rights Voices. 3 The links between UN-accredited NGOs and the promotion of terrorism and hatred ­ including, in particular, antisemitism ­ violates the terms and conditions of these NGOs' accreditation. In some cases, these NGOs were originally accredited by UN bodies in spite of these links. In other cases, while these links may have developed after the original accreditation processes, UN bodies ­ despite conducting mandatory periodic review processes ­ permit such NGOs to retain their UN status while violating the fundamental principles of the institution. Scattered around the UN system are a few disclaimers of responsibility for the content of NGO events held on UN premises or NGO websites to which UN websites link directly. But NGO events held on UN premises are permitted only after detailed applications are made to UN bodies or staff; NGO website links are selectively posted on UN sites by UN officials; and, in some cases, NGOs are singled out and given valuable speaking slots by UN bodies or staff. The UN cannot simply wash its hands of any responsibility, since its own selection and approval procedures belie any claims that UN officials are ignorant of NGOs' purposes and content. And none of these excuses addresses the fact that the buck stops with UN member states, who are the ones charged with the responsibility of awarding or continuing UN accreditation for NGOs in the first place. In May 2016, many of the world's major NGOs complained that the processes of acquiring accreditation were unfair because NGO applications were being held up or denied by member states for the wrong reasons, namely, criticism of member states' governments. And indeed, the states running the UN accreditation processes are frequently countries that inhibit free speech and curtail the freedom of association in their own backyards, and deliberately use their UN powers to protect themselves in the international sphere. Current members of the most prolific UN NGO accreditation operation include such NGO-abusing states as China, Cuba, Iran, Russia, and Sudan. Iran is currently a Vice-Chair. Processes for reporting and review of NGOs following accreditation are almost always mere formalities, and there is little appetite for change from any quarter, given the potential for abuse. As a result, the process for retaining NGO accreditation at the UN has permitted, for example, a UN-accredited NGO like "World Vision" to submit a "quadrennial report" for 2008 to 2011 that failed to mention anything it was doing at all in the Gaza Strip. Instead, World Vision reported in general that it was keen "to improve the well-being of children," and its "community involvement" consisted of empowering communities "to save the lives of women." Actually, World Vision's Gaza branch director was spending tens of millions of dollars supporting Hamas terror operations and gravely jeopardizing the well-being and lives of Palestinian women and children. The UN NGO Committee signed off on World Vision's 2008-2011 report in 2013 with a cryptic "took note" of the report. The UN has not made public World Vision's report for 2012-2015, which was due in July 2016. While NGOs are clamoring for more access to all manner of UN goings-on, they are not policing themselves. On the contrary, the common mantra among NGOs is that of promoting "the voices of the victims" ­ where victimhood is quite deliberately self-defined, regardless of the legitimacy of these claims. What the self-appointed spokespersons of "civil society" neglected to mention in their May 2016 protest, was that UN member states are not only delaying or denying accreditation to the right NGOs; they are accrediting the wrong NGOs. The terrorist advocates. The haters. The antisemites. There are numerous examples of UN-accredited NGOs engaging in antisemitism, promoting violence and terror, demonizing the UN member state of Israel, and advocating its destruction. In this report we provide a range of examples of these activities. Regardless of when the materials were first disseminated, they continued to be distributed and made publicly accessible in 2016. Screenshots of the sources are 4 provided for every entry. These examples are drawn from a variety of sources: the websites and other online presences of UN-accredited NGOs, statements made by UN-accredited NGOs at UN events, materials distributed by UN-accredited NGOs on UN premises, and material that is not only found on UN-accredited NGO websites but that is trumpeted via direct links located on UN websites. Examples from UN-accredited NGOs include: "`[T]errorism' is a political term used by the colonizer to discredit those who resist as the Afrikaaners and Nazis named the Black and French freedom fighters, respectively...Armed resistance was used in the American Revolution, the Afghan resistance against Russia (which the U.S. supported), the French resistance against the Nazis, and even in the Nazi concentration camps, or, more famously, in the Warsaw Ghetto. Palestinian resistance arises out of a similarly oppressive situation..." "The main obstacle to the advancement of Zionism is the heroic daily resistance of the Palestinians, manifested in the recent "youth intifada"...Zionism instrumentalizes the memory of the Holocaust as a tool to legitimize war crimes...We must expose the fallacy of partition and the two-state solution..." "Never forget or forgive! We will fight until total liberation of #Palestine from the River to the Sea! #Nakba67" "I have walked through the killing fields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sri Lanka and seen death close up...I have never before witnessed one group of people deriving so much pleasure and joy from inflicting so much pain and suffering on another group of people including their babies and infants. The injustice that is Palestine is there for all to see if only you will look..." "[T]oday the Gaza Strip cannot anymore [sic] considered just as an open air prison. It has become a concentration camp..." "The most important feeling is when you feel your soul and the souls of the people you love are so cheap, and your suffering and your blood so cheap, and there is only one blood and soul that is holy, which is Israeli Jews, you just lose your mind." "This year uncovered, for the first time, the practice of extracting human organs from killed Palestinians whose bodies were in the hands of Israeli forces and the sale of these organs." "The deliberate targeting of Palestinian children has become a notable feature of the Israeli occupation in the OPT ["Occupied Palestinian Territories"]...[T]he Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have long killed, beaten, tortured, arrested and arbitrarily detained Palestinian children." "Zionist ideology is the driving force behind the ongoing Palestinian reality of apartheid." "To boost Israeli arms sales, Palestinian families have suffered three onslaughts of `systematic genocide' wars in six years." The sampling has been divided into four general categories: materials that (1) incite hate or encourage antisemitism, (2) condone or justify violence and terror, (3) demonize Israel, and (4) delegitimize Israel and seek the destruction of the Jewish state. These broad groupings, and the malevolent campaigns of UN-accredited NGOs evidenced therein, are also clearly related to one another, and so they overlap. There are direct connections between modern antisemitism and "boycott, divestment and sanctions (BDS)" efforts, between demonizing Israel and delegitimizing the existence of the Jewish state, between inciting hatred and producing terror. UN member states that underwrite the United Nations are currently underwriting a burgeoning global network of intolerance and incitement to violent extremism. These states have the power and the duty ­ in the name of the foundational principles of the United Nations ­ to put an end to this affront to the dignity and the security of every human being and to the equality of nations large and small. 5 The Rules I. What are UN NGOs? Generally, UN accreditation or association is done either through the Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) or the Department of Public Information (DPI). In the case of Israeli-related matters, it can also be acquired through the Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP). The qualifier for UN-NGO accreditation is that "the aims and purposes of the organization shall be in conformity with the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations" - in the case of ECOSOC accreditation; "support and respect the principles of the Charter of the United Nations" - in the case of DPI association; and "support the Charter of the United Nations" - in the case of accreditation by the CEIRPP. II. Ways to Get Accreditation or Association A. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) "accreditation" There are three categories of ECOSOC accreditation available to NGOs: general consultative status, special consultative status, and roster. How to get accreditation: The application mainly consists of disclosing any funding from governments, submitting examples of publications, and describing the aims of the organization and examples of activities pursued by the organization, as well as providing a statement of the anticipated future contribution to ECOSOC. An application is then reviewed and approved by the UN Committee on NGOs (composed of 19 member states). Current membership of the Committee includes states which systematically limit the rights of NGOs, such as: China, Iran, Russia, Sudan, and Turkey. The Committee's recommendation is forwarded to ECOSOC (composed of 54 UN member states), which then makes a final decision. Current membership in ECOSOC includes states with poor to non-existent protection for independent NGOs, such as: Afghanistan, Algeria, Burkina Faso, China, Democratic Republic of the Congo, Lebanon, Pakistan, and Somalia. In 2016 there are 4665 ECOSOC-accredited NGOs. 1. General Consultative Status Resolution 1996/31 "22. Organizations that are concerned with most of the activities of the Council and its subsidiary bodies and can demonstrate to the satisfaction of the Council that they have substantive and sustained contributions to make to the achievement of the objectives of the United Nations... shall be known as organizations in general consultative status." 6 2. Special Consultative Status Resolution 1996/31 "23. Organizations that have a special competence in, and are concerned specifically with, only a few of the fields of activity covered by the Council and its subsidiary bodies... shall be known as organizations in special consultative status... 25. Organizations to be accorded special consultative status because of their interest in the field of human rights should pursue the goals of promotion and protection of human rights in accordance with the spirit of the Charter of the United Nations, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the Vienna Declaration and Programme of Action." 3. The Roster Resolution 1996/31 "24. Other organizations that do not have general or special consultative status but that the Council, or the Secretary-General of the United Nations in consultation with the Council or its Committee on NonGovernmental Organizations, considers can make occasional and useful contributions to the work of the Council or its subsidiary bodies or other United Nations bodies within their competence shall be included in a list (to be known as the Roster)." B. Department of Public Information (DPI) "association" How to get association: Association with DPI "...requires having effective information programmes in place and the ability and means to disseminate information about the work of the United Nations." The application generally consists of establishing non-profit status, providing evidence that the organization has circulated information related to the work of the United Nations, and supplying recommendations. Resolution 1297 (XLIV) In 1968, the Economic and Social Council called on DPI to associate NGOs, bearing in mind the letter and spirit of its Resolution 1296 (XLIV) which stated that an NGO "...shall undertake to support the work of the United Nations and to promote knowledge of its principles and activities, in accordance with its own aims and purposes and the nature and scope of its competence and activities." Applications are first sent to the UN Information Centre (UNIC) covering the country where the NGO is based. The UNIC makes a recommendation to the UN NGO Relations Office at UN Headquarters. The NGO Relations Office presents the application to the UN DPI Committee on NGOs (composed of members of the UN secretariat), which then makes the final decision. In 2016 here are 1,090 NGOs associated with DPI. C. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) "accreditation" There are two categories of accreditation available to NGOs from the CEIRPP: "accredited" and "observer." Observers are only included on the mailing list of the Division for Palestinian Rights and can "attend NGO meetings as observers." 7 How to get accreditation: NGOs who wish to be "accredited" or have "observer" status must submit an application form that includes information on their activities and programs "in support of the achievement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people." The application is submitted to the Division for Palestinian Rights of the UN Secretariat, which then sends it for approval to the UN Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People. The Committee is composed of 26 UN member states, ten of which do not have diplomatic relations with the UN member state of Israel. In 2016 there are 427 NGOs accredited by the Committee that have been publicly disclosed. III. Benefits of Accreditation or Association A. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) accreditation To what does it entitle the organization: Resolution 1996/31 (and with respect to the UN Human Rights Council A/RES/5/1) ECOSOC-accredited NGOs are entitled to: sit as observers at public UN meetings submit written statements to various UN bodies make oral statements at various UN meetings participate in various UN conferences consult with UN secretariat officials access UN press documentation attend informal discussions offered by the UN secretariat use UN facilities for meetings (as available and subject to additional rules) B. Department of Public Information (DPI) association To what does it entitle the organization: grounds passes for activities or events organized by DPI at UN headquarters participation in the annual UN DPI/NGO Conference participation and contribution to the weekly NGO briefings at UN headquarters access to materials, activities and events which promote the work of the United Nations access to the Library at UN Headquarters use of the DPI /NGO Resource Centre at UN Headquarters 8 C. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) accreditation To what does it entitle the organization: "attend all relevant international meetings and conferences held under the auspices of the Committee and participate in the discussions and to make statements, either orally or in written form." "submit reports, written statements and other relevant documents for circulation among Committee Members and Observers. They will have the opportunity to display, after prior screening by the Secretariat, their own publications at such meetings." "invited to make suggestions regarding the preparation and conduct of civil society events held under the auspices of the Committee." "use these international meetings as a platform to discuss their own initiatives, campaigns, views and ideas." "be consulted by members of the Committee and/or staff of the Division [for Palestinian Rights] on issues related to the question of Palestine." "receive all publications issued by the Division and other relevant information material." IV. Promises by UN NGOs in order to get Accreditation or Association A. Economic and Social Council (ECOSOC) accreditation What promises or undertakings are required to be entitled to accreditation: Resolution 1996/31 "The following principles shall be applied in establishing consultative relations with non-governmental organizations: 2. The aims and purposes of the organization shall be in conformity with the spirit, purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations. 3. The organization shall undertake to support the work of the United Nations... 57. The consultative status of non-governmental organizations with the Economic and Social Council and the listing of those on the Roster shall be suspended up to three years or withdrawn in the following cases: (a) If an organization, either directly or through its affiliates or representatives acting on its behalf, clearly abuses its status by engaging in a pattern of acts contrary to the purposes and principles of the Charter of the United Nations including unsubstantiated or politically motivated acts against Member States of the United Nations incompatible with those purposes and principles..." Periodic Review "61... (c) Organizations in general consultative status and special consultative status shall submit to the Council Committee on Non-Governmental Organizations through the Secretary-General every fourth year a brief report of their activities, specifically as regards the support they have given to the work of the United Nations. Based on findings of the Committee's examination of the report and other relevant information, the Committee may recommend to the Council any reclassification in status of the organization concerned as it deems appropriate..." 9 B. Department of Public Information (DPI) association What promises or undertakings are required to be entitled to association: "What are the responsibilities of NGOs associated with DPI? To raise public awareness particularly in grass root and rural communities about key issues on the UN agenda including the priorities of the UN Secretary-General... Design and implement public information activities and programmes including the printing and dissemination of publications promoting the work of the United Nations..." Resolution 1297 (XLIV) "...shall undertake to support the work of the United Nations and to promote knowledge of its principles and activities..." Annual Review "Every year [the DPI Committee on NGOs] evaluate[s] associated NGOs to determine if they have fulfilled their association responsibilities... " C. Committee on the Exercise of the Inalienable Rights of the Palestinian People (CEIRPP) accreditation What promises or undertakings are required to be entitled to accreditation: "The criteria for accreditation of NGOs...The NGO should:... "b. support the Charter of the United Nations, the principles of international law and the achievement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people, primarily its right to self-determination; "c. have demonstrated that it has concrete programmes or the serious intent to establish such programmes in support of the achievement of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people. "Organizations whose mandates preclude advocacy but whose work encompasses humanitarian ends and programmes, including development, benefiting the Palestinian people, are welcome to participate." Review "Accredited civil society organizations have the responsibility to... provide regular feedback to the Committee (through the Division [UN Division on Palestinian Rights]) on their planned and accomplished activities; and submit to the Committee once every four years a formal report detailing their activities on the question of Palestine." 10 Breaking the Promises I. Inciting Hate or Encouraging Antisemitism The UN accredits and associates with NGOs that espouse antisemitism. The antisemitism takes various forms: demeaning remarks about Jews, abhorrence of the presence of Jews or so-called "Judaization," minimizing the Holocaust, claiming antisemitism is feigned or grossly exaggerated, appropriating the language of Jew-hatred, Jewish history and experience of antisemitism including the Holocaust and applying it to Arabs, analogizing Israelis to Nazis, denying that anti-Zionism or the denial of the right of Jewish self-determination is a form of antisemitism, and equating Zionism with racism (see also Section III). One favored tactic of UN-accredited or associated NGOs is to highlight self-hating Jews or Jewish antisemites, or to represent that this tiny minority are the only decent Jews. Here is a sampling of the incitement to hatred against Jews and the promotion of antisemitism, by UNaccredited NGOs. (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "Palestine Return Centre (PSC), March 22, 2012," The Palestinian Return Centre Ltd, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 11 "Zionism's "final solution" to Israel's much-touted and racist "demographic threat" allegedly posed by the very existence of the Palestinians has always been genocide, whether slow-motion or in bloodthirsty spurts of violence. Indeed, the very essence of Zionism requires ethnic cleansing and acts of genocide against the Palestinians...Certainly, Israel and its predecessors-in-law-the Zionist agencies, forces, and terrorist gangs-have committed genocide against the Palestinian people that actually started on or about 1948 and has continued apace until today..." (Excerpt from "The Palestinian Genocide by Israel," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...[A]partheid in Israel is one of the worst because it is inherent in the very Zionist philosophy of the State and its apartheid system application of racist laws and practices... Cruelty was the familiar air the persecuted Jews breathed during the Nazi period. Why should cruelty and disdain for others be the air that Israel makes Palestinians breath under its occupation! If only the injured injures, than those who were responsible for the persecution of Jews in Europe are also legally and morally responsible for the Israeli persecution of Palestinians too. Their silence now, as their silence then, is the ultimate betrayal...of the legacy of the Holocaust and Palestinians alike..." (Excerpt from "Written statement by the International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) to the UN Human Rights Council: No Trial, No Advocate, No Verdict," International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, May 22, 2015," Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "[T]oday the Gaza Strip cannot anymore [be] considered just as an open air prison. It has become a concentration camp whose occupants are victims of the crimes committed by their jailers..." (Excerpt from "Oral statement by the American Association of Jurists to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, March 23, 2015," American Association of Jurists, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The Israeli government has built large ghettos by lining the West Bank, the border with Egypt, and the Gaza Strip with fences and walls. Of course, Gaza is the most complete Israeli "ghetto." The vast majority of Jews somehow fail to connect the situation of Gazans, and all other Palestinians living under Israeli occupation, to their own history of resistance and survival under occupation. This elision has created a twisted drama where Palestinians are sentenced to a Jewish fate." (Excerpt from "The Israeli ghetto," Alternative Information Centre, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on March 7, 2016) "Wherever one goes ­ Western Europe, Canada, Australia, New Zealand and the United States ­ there is a well-organized and funded lobby ready, willing and able to go to war to protect Israel." (Excerpt from "Israel's International Conspiracy," Council for the National Interest Foundation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 12 "Never forget or forgive! We will fight until total liberation of #Palestine from the River to the Sea! #Nakba67" (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "Al-Awda, May 15, 2015," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The media is under the control of Zionist organisations...My question is: which is stronger, is it the law or the Zionist project?" (Excerpt from "Meezaan Association for Human Rights received a European parliamentary delegation," Meezaan Center for Human Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The policies of incremental ethnic cleansing that Israel calls "Judaization" are proceeding apace in Palestine`s historic cities, including Jerusalem, Jaffa, Acre, Lydda and Ramla..." (Excerpt from "Palestine: Land Day & BDS Global Day of Action," Habitat International Coalition, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The 21st Century is witnessing the most blatant ghettoisation of a people since the Second World War." (Excerpt from "The ghettoisation of Palestine - tourism as a tool of oppression and resistance," Third World Network, Accredited with Roster Status by ECOSOC, and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 13 "Typical expulsion pattern of a Palestinian village followed these lines:...They were kept in crammed concentration camps...[V]ictims are entitled to compensation in the same way as Jewish victims are now paid compensation of billions of dollars for their suffering in Nazi slave labour camps." (Excerpt from "Palestinian Forced Labour Camps," Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation of Canada, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "It is shocking that this would have happened in Palestine within just a few years after the Nazi regime was defeated and all the prisoners including the large number of Jews in their concentration camps were freed...One aspect ­ rarely researched or deeply discussed ­ is the internment of thousands of Palestinian civilians within at least 22 Zionist run concentration and labor camps that existed from 1948 to 1955...[F]or the Zionist strategists, prisoners were a burden in the beginning phases of the ethnic cleansing...Gaza today is a concentration camp, no different than the past." (Excerpt from "On Israel's little-known concentration and labor camps in 1948-1955," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "There is an enormous difference between "recognizing Israel's existence" and "recognizing Israel's right to exist." From a Palestinian perspective, the difference is in the same league as the difference between asking a Jew to acknowledge that the Holocaust happened and asking him to concede that the Holocaust was morally justified...For the Jewish and Palestinian peoples, the Holocaust and the Nakba, respectively, represent catastrophes and injustices on an unimaginable scale that can neither be forgotten nor forgiven." (Excerpt from "What Israel's right to exist means to Palestinians," If Americans Knew, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Why does the U.S. government have such a passionate attachment to the dictates of successive Israeli governments? It started with President Harry Truman, who spoke of powerful, organized domestic political forces that were `anxious for the success of Zionism'...According to the 9/11 Commission Report, Israeli oppression of Palestinians was one of the chief grievances of the 9/11 attackers...The Israel lobby, dominated by AIPAC, is consistently ranked as one of the most powerful and effective lobbies in Washington...This image of a frightened, vulnerable Israel bears little relation to reality. Most of its conflicts have been wars of aggression and opportunity... And no nation has ever threatened to wipe Israel off the map... It feels sometimes like the occupation will never end, like the American public will never wake up, like the Israeli government, army, and lobby are all-powerful. This feeling is especially... in Washington, where defying the Israel lobby can still cost you a promotion or even your job." (Excerpt from "Farewell, Figleaf," Americans For Middle East Understanding, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 14 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Al Quds Day 2013," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) Editor's note: Al Quds Day is an annual day, originating with Iranian Ayatollah Khomeni in 1979, to express opposition to Zionism, promote rejection of Israel's existence, and object to Israeli control of Jerusalem. _______________________________________________ "Today, Zionism is firmly in the hands of the extreme Right, a mixture of nationalists, religious fanatics and the settlers, supported by very rich Jews in Israel and outside. They govern the news, both directly (they own all the TV networks and the newspapers) and metaphorically... In the name of Zionism, our fanatically right-wing Minister of Education is sending Israeli school children on indoctrination trips to "holy places" in the occupied territory...To strengthen their Zionist convictions they are also sent to Auschwitz." (Excerpt from "Talking Zionism," Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 15 "...[T]here are certainly some aspects of Israel's policy toward the Palestinians that bear a clear resemblance to the Nazis' oppression..."Genocide" -- defined by the UN Convention as the intention "to destroy, in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group" -- most aptly describes Israel's efforts, akin to the Nazis', to erase an entire people. (See William Cook's "The Rape of Palestine," CounterPunch, January 7/8, 2006 for a discussion of what constitutes genocide.) ... Israel most likely does not care about how systematic its efforts at erasure are, or how rapidly they proceed, and in these ways it differs from the Nazis. There are no gas chambers; there is no overriding urgency. Gas chambers are not needed... little girls riddled with bullets here, infants beheaded by shell fire there; a little massacre here, a little starvation there... dispossession is the name of the game... [T]he people will die, the nation will die without a single gas chamber. Or so the Israelis hope...Israel has given itself the right to erase the Palestinian presence in Palestine -- in other words, to commit genocide by destroying "in whole or in part, a national, ethnical, racial, or religious group."...[G]ross injustice such as the Nazis and Israel have inflicted on innocent people cannot prevail for long." (Excerpt from "Does It Matter What You Call It? Genocide or Erasure of Palestinians," Women for Palestine - Australians for Palestine, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "[T]he world that Zionists made, according to their ideal of Jewish sovereignty... is a world of segregation, with Jews on top." (Excerpt from "Among the settlers," Friends of Al-Aqsa, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Important links... The Palestinian Holocaust Memorial Museum" (Excerpt from "Home Page," Meezaan Center for Human Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Typical expulsion pattern of a Palestinian village followed these lines:...They were kept in crammed concentration camps... [V]ictims are entitled to compensation in the same way as Jewish victims are now paid compensation of billions of dollars for their suffering in Nazi slave labour camps." (Excerpt from "Palestinian Forced Labour Camps," Near East Cultural and Educational Foundation of Canada, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Zionism is a political movement, not a religion; it is a colonialist, racist, ideology of conquest, oppression, subjugation and control." (Excerpt from "Anti-Zionism is Not Anti-Semitism, Oral Statement by the International Organization for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, March 24, 2009," International Organization for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed August 25, 2016) 16 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "PSC ­ Thailand, May 10, 2016," Palestine Solidarity Campaign ­ Thailand, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "...ICAHD-USA is now focusing on the connections between resistance against displacement in Palestine and resistance against gentrification in American cities­ in particular the ways in which the American and Israeli governments suppress this resistance. While the policing of American neighborhoods pushes residents of color out of their homes every day, Israeli military policies of Judaization force Palestinians off their lands decade after decade... The fact that police departments around the world increasingly look and act like occupying armies, and that technologies and weapons tested on Palestinians make their way into American cities, is no coincidence." (Excerpt from "Palestine is Here," Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 17, 2016) "I saw how the settlements are spreading everywhere like spores inhabited by pervert vagabonds who came from everywhere around the world to occupy this land." (Excerpt from "Trying Israel for its crimes," Arab Commission for Human Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 17 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Worldwide Protests Against Attack on Flotilla," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "Years ago I disclosed one of the biggest secrets about Iran: Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was an agent of the Mossad. Suddenly, all the curious details of his behavior made sense. His public fantasies about the disappearance of Israel. His denial of the Holocaust, which until then had been typical only of a lunatic fringe. His boasting about Iran's nuclear capabilities. Cui bono? Who had an interest in all this nonsense? There is only one sensible answer: Israel. His posturing depicted Iran as a state which was both ridiculous and sinister. It justified Israel's refusal to sign the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty or to ratify the Chemical Weapons Convention. It diverted attention from Israel's refusal to discuss the occupation of the Palestinian territories or hold meaningful peace negotiations." (Excerpt from "The Real Bomb," Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 18 "The American-Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), as it does on any issue involving Palestine and Israel issued Talking Points for members of Congress...AIPAC keeps close track of how many interviews each member gives and how closely they tow the Zionist line so as to help determine how much cash the particular member will receive for re-election as well as other perks." (Excerpt from "Historic Victory For Palestine," Third World Network, Accredited with Roster Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...[T]he charge of antisemitism applies to Zionism itself. Indeed, they are racist political twins...Zionism historically argued that antisemitism was inherent in non-Jews and thus would always persist...Zionism has always depended on support from antisemitic elites...During the early stages of the Third Reich, moreover, the Nazis and Zionist organizations shared an outlook on Jewish separation...Zionist colonisation depended on racist institutions which still operate today...Zionist militias attacked Palestinian civilians during the 1940s until the 1948 declaration of independence for Israel... Zionism sought to replace the indigenous population with colonial-settlers as the `New Jew'...As in the 1930s, Zionism and racist Right-wing politics have continued to converge...Throughout Europe most major racist parties are antisemitic, Islamophobic and proZionist...By claiming to be `the State of the Jews', Israel implicates all Jews in Israel's wars, occupation, land thefts, expulsions and other crimes." (Excerpt from "Zionism and Antisemitism: Racist Political Twins ­ A J-BIG Briefing," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC and by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu is adding a fifth demand to his negotiations...That the Palestinians recognize Israel as a "Jewish state."... [T]he demand has to be seen in the context of...want[ing] to strip Palestinian-Israelis of their citizenship and make them stateless. Making people stateless was a policy of the vicious states of Europe in the 1930s...You have a sinking feeling that the real reason Netanyahu wants Palestinians to assent to the Jewishness of the Israeli state (whatever that might mean) is that he has malicious plans for the 20% of the population that is not Jewish." (Excerpt from "Recognizing Israel as a Jewish State is like saying the US is a White State," The Jerusalem Fund (Palestine Center/Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine), (both NGOs) Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "But while Israel endeavors (with the US, Europe and, for its own reasons, the Palestinian Authority) to keep the two-state charade going on indefinitely, it has already moved on to the next stage: putting in place an apartheid regime or, preferably, simply warehousing the Palestinians forever...Israel's version of the two-state solution would do the same: create a Palestinian Bantustan on 15% of historic Palestine, grant it putative sovereignty yet keep it entirely under Israeli control and domination, the rest of the country becoming a "Jewish democracy." Warehousing makes no such pretense. Just as in a prison, Palestinian would become inmates ­ or more accurately, wards of the international community ­ to be fed, protected but that's all." (Excerpt from "Is the Two-State Solution Dead?," Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 19 "The expulsion of the majority of Palestinians from their homes and replacing them by Jews from various parts of the world over the past 60 years has been a premeditated crime concocted deliberately by the Zionist movement whose ideology continues to be based on the war crime of population transfer aimed at simultaneously pumping out the indigenous Palestinian population and pumping in Jews from the world to create and maintain a Jewish state on the land of Palestine." (Excerpt from "Gaza: A Refuge's Perspective," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 15, 2016) "This year's Genocide Memorial Day...an increasingly popular and more inclusive alternative to Holocaust Remembrance Day in that it commemorates all genocides past and present, irrespective of race, ethnicity or religion...Among the events planned in London is a conference featuring Michel Warschawski, founder of the anti-Zionist Alternative Information Centre and a founder and leader of the pioneering anti-Zionist socialist organization Matzpen Warschawski will outline the dehumanisation of the Palestinians that has been a necessary precursor to their oppression." (Excerpt from "Press Release: Genocide Memorial Day goes European," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 20 _______________________________________________ Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "Perdana Global Peace Foundation, July 24, 2016," Perdana Global Peace Foundation, Accredited be CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) ___________________________________________ "Denial of Palestinian Refugees' Rights:...This denial has its roots in the Holocaust and in the unique circumstances created as a result of it, which allowed Israel to argue that, unlike any other state, it was obliged to deny Palestinian refugees their unequivocal right to return to their homes and lands, specifically to preserve the Jewish character of the state. This, the argument went, was the only way to maintain a safe haven for the world Jewry, the "super-victims," who are unsafe among the Gentiles...No other country on earth today can ever get away with a similarly overt, racist attitude about its right to ethnic purity." (Excerpt from "Relative Humanity: The Fundamental Obstacle to a Secular Democratic State Solution," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 21 "The Israel Lobby The Israel Lobby is one of the most powerful and pervasive special interest groups in the United States...The Israel Lobby drives almost all our foreign policies in the Middle East and many world wide. Components of it were a major factor in causing the Iraq war, are behind the targeting of Iran, and are playing a central role in creating fear and hatred of Muslims... Furthermore, lobbying the government on behalf of Israel proves to be very lucrative for directors of many of these organizations, who earn very large salaries." (Excerpt from "Israel Lobby," Council for the National Interest Foundation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...[O]ur world is now faced with the emergence of a new type of nazism...Zionism, with its inhumane ethnic, racist principles, with its devilish schemes which generate chaos all over the world, with its dangerous plans to dominate,...with its beastly octopus which has almost a decisive role in directing the policies of the greatest countries in the world, cannot be viewed as a threat to this region alone, but to the whole world...It is depressing that European resistance to Nazi racist policies and occupation should have been hailed and glorified, while Palestinian resistance is described as terrorism." (Excerpt from "Zionism & Racism," International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Save the Jews/Palestinians in Warsaw/Gaza," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 22 "...Raji Sourani, human rights lawyer and founder of PCHR [Palestinian Centre for Human Rights], gave an interview published on 16 July 2014." (NGO Action News, UNISPAL (a UN) website) Editor's note: The word "interview" on the UNISPAL website is a direct link to the following: "The most important feeling is when you feel your soul and the souls of the people you love are so cheap, and your suffering and your blood so cheap, and there is only one blood and soul that is holy, which is Israeli Jews, you just lose your mind." (Excerpt from "NGO Action News, July 18, 2014," Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Al-Awda, the Palestine Right to Return Coalition affirms that the Palestinian Arab people, regardless of their religious affiliation, are indigenous to Palestine. Therefore, they are entitled to live anywhere in Palestine which encompasses present-day "Israel", the West Bank and Gaza Strip. Al-Awda regards the Israeli definition of Jewish nationals, granting exclusive rights to citizenship and land to any Jew from anywhere in the world, as part of the racism and discrimination inherent in Zionist ideology which underlies the policies and laws of the colonial occupation state of Israel..." (Excerpt from "Points of Unity," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016 "It has even been suggested that given the size of the Palestinian-American community, a major challenge to the political influence of the Israel lobby could emerge from progressive Jewish forces that reject the warmongering and racist politics of organizations like the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC). That would be a welcome development indeed for several reasons. For one, it would help defeat the ideological effort to equate Judaism with Zionism." (Excerpt from "Book Review: A Rabbi's Journey from liberal Zionism to anti-Zionism," Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Zionism is an ideology of Jewish nationalism that resulted in the political project of building a state for and by Jews in Palestine that was acquired through colonial settlement and ethnic cleansing. Zionists/Zionist organizations are those who support the maintenance of a Jewish settler state in historic Palestine based on destroying or undermining the safety, well-being, dignity and equity of Palestinians and others of the colonized area..." (Excerpt from "Israel's Worldwide Role in Repression," U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The Association opposes Zionism because of its exclusionist, aggressive and racist nature." (Excerpt from "Basis of Unity," Canada Palestine Association, Vancouver, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 23 "Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu building a wall from the blood of Palestinians." (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "Palestine Return Centre (PSC), January 28, 2013," The Palestinian Return Centre Ltd, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Subjecting Palestinian Arabs to ethnic cleansing was an integral part of the implicit and explicit political Zionist thought and parlance all along." (Excerpt from "The Zionist Project in Palestine: Colonial Settlement, Land Robbery and Ethnic Cleansing," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 24 "According to the Old Testament, when the ancient Israelites attacked Canaan, God held back the sun to enable them to finish the job. It would appear that the US, which often plays the role of God in modern times, has been performing the same service for Israel in the Jewish state's latest war in the Middle East...The slaughter of innocents and their anguished cries were, it was to be inferred from the words of US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, merely the `birth pangs of a new Middle East'." (Excerpt from "A US/Israeli debacle in the Middle East," Third World Network, Accredited with Roster Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 22, 2016) "Judaization refers to the view that Israel has actively sought to transform the physical and demographic landscape to correspond with a vision of a united and fundamentally Jewish land under Israeli sovereignty in historic Palestine. Israel pursues a concerted policy land expropriation, demolitions, forced evictions and discriminatory development, displacing Palestinians and introducing Jewish inhabitants. Israeli Government ministries openly continue to advance, "evict and Judaize" programmes, whereby Palestinians are displaced, directly or indirectly, and Jewish inhabitants are introduced in their place..." (Excerpt from "Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Israel by the UN Human Rights Council, Jan/Feb 2013," ICAHD - The Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 26, 2016) "The propaganda apparatus of the national state-building Zionist movement has brainwashed much of the world..." (Excerpt from "Judaism or Zionism: What Difference for the Middle East?" International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Pluto-Zionism is the three-way marriage of plutocracy, rightwing Zionism and US presidential candidate Hillary Clinton, a serial war criminal, racist and servant of Wall Street. How did this deadly ménage-a-trois come about? The answer is that a stratospherically wealthy donor group, dedicated to promoting Israel's dominance in the Middle East and deepening US military intervention in the region, has secured Clinton's unconditional support for Tel Aviv's ambitions and, in exchange, Hilary receives scores of millions to finance her Democratic Party foot soldiers and voters for her campaign." (Excerpt from "Pluto ­ Zionists Support for Hillary Clinton," Council for the National Interest Foundation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Israel's self definition of a `Jewish state' not only exacerbates the inequality among Jewish and Palestinian and other non-Jewish citizens of Israel but as well proves the political reality of inequality and discrimination towards the latter." (Excerpt from "Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Israel by the UN Human Rights Council, Jan/Feb 2013," Joint Submission By Arab NGO Network for Development and Mossawa Center ­ The Advocacy Center for Arab Citizens in Israel, Accredited with Roster Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 26, 2016) 25 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Al Quds Day terror rally organised by the Islamic Human Rights Commission in London's Trafalgar Square, London, UK, August 21, 2011," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "PSC Thailand, June 22 [2016]. This might seem incredible but think about it. Why are ISIS mostly attacking, enslaving and killing Muslims and making their lives totally miserable and intolerable? Why have they not done anything to harm Israel, who would otherwise be presumed to be their natural enemy? Just as importantly, why has Israel not lifted a finger to be rid of what would be presumed to be a natural enemy of theirs? They are oppressing and killing Palestinians every day and regularly attack Hizbollah in Lebanon. It does bear thinking about without getting bogged down in conspiracy theories." (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "PSC ­ Thailand, June 22, 2016," Palestine Solidarity Campaign ­ Thailand, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 22, 2016) 26 "Does FOSNA support the existence of Israel as a Jewish state? This question is rooted in a presupposition, which needs to be carefully examined: that the State of Israel can only exist as a Jewish state, that is, as a state in which Jews are the overwhelming demographic majority and only Jews have full citizenship... To declare Israel a "Jewish state" would mean that this discriminatory treatment is enshrined as a core value of the state itself...[T]o ask Palestinians to accept Israel as a Jewish state is like asking Jews, Muslims and other non-Christians to recognize the U.S. as a "Christian state."... What is the Nakba? The Nakba is the Palestinian term for the events of 1948 that established the state of Israel. It means "the catastrophe" in Arabic... These histories confirm the Palestinians' narrative of ethnic cleansing... Many say that the Nakba has never ended, that it was repeated in dramatic fashion in 1967 but continues inside Israel and within the occupied territories today, with land confiscation and ethnic cleansing of entire villages." (Excerpt from "FAQ," Friends of Sabeel - North America, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "On 16 May, Adalah and the Center for Palestine Studies at Columbia University announced the launch of The Nakba Files, a new website that will serve as an online space for researchers and practitioners to explore new approaches to law in Israel/Palestine." (NGO Action News, UNISPAL (a UN) website) Editor's note: The words "The Nakba Files" on the UNISPAL website is a direct link to the following posts: "Majd Kayyal: The catastrophe that took place on 5 June 1967 boils down to one fact: it sealed the consequences of the Nakba. It marked the defeat of political projects that promised an Arab rebirth and refused to accept the 1948 ethnic cleansing of Palestine." "When we decided to do this book, my condition was that it needed to address not just the Holocaust, but the Holocaust and the Nakba together. If you are in the Israeli context and you want to discuss the Holocaust with Jewish and Palestinian teachers, it is entirely flawed to do so without intimately connecting the Holocaust and the Nakba, since the institutions of the state treat the Holocaust as an exceptional and unique event, instrumentalizing it to defend the hegemony of Zionism...Palestinians are not responsible for the Holocaust but the Zionist movement and the state of Israel are very much responsible for the Nakba...Putting the Holocaust and the Nakba together in a common frame disrupts this exceptionalism and is meant to provoke new thinking...[W]hen the sirens blare on Holocaust day in Israel...it is part and parcel of a larger monopolization and instrumentalization of the Holocaust that serves to justify the very serious discrimination, racism, and oppression exercised against them as Palestinians." (Excerpt from "NGO Action News, May 20, 2016," ADALAH - Legal Center for Arab Minority Rights in Israel, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 27 "The Mexican cartoonist Antonio Rodriguez just made this masterpiece about the little Palestinian girl whose bike was stolen by Zionist soldiers because she rode it on a "Jews only" street." (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "Perdana Global Peace Foundation, August 3, 2016," Perdana Global Peace Foundation, Accredited be CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The Jerusalem Municipality has revealed that it will hold a hearing on Thursday to approve the Judaization of 43 streets' names in neighborhoods where Palestinians live in Jerusalem. The municipality stated in a press statement that the approval of Judaizing 43 streets` names in the neighborhoods of East Jerusalem came in addition to the approval of Judaizing 141 streets` names in East Jerusalem last year. The Jerusalem municipality has launched a campaign to Judaize dozens of streets' names in Jerusalem, under the pretext that these streets have suffered over the past decades of negligence, and did not have names, making it difficult to provide services for these residents." (Excerpt from "Judaizing Jerusalem's Streets," Habitat International Coalition, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 16, 2016) 28 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Zionism is Racism," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 29 II. Condoning or Justifying Violence The UN accredits and associates with NGOs that condone or justify violence against Jews either inside or outside of Israel. The violent programmatic takes various forms: the reference to killers as martyrs, support for armed or violent struggle or resistance, and the effort to justify violence by focusing on alleged causes of terrorism. Here is a sampling of condoning, justifying and promoting violent extremism and terrorism by UNaccredited NGOs. (Excerpt from "Al Quds Day Worldwide, 2010," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "...[I]t is inevitable that, from the aggrieved, will come concerted calls for an alternative; for grassroots change; for popular resistance. Perhaps the most obvious example is the recent increase in the number of youth protests throughout the oPt. ["occupied Palestinian territory"]...[T]he majority of those who take to the streets to protest and face-off against the might of the Middle East's most formidable military belong to the `Oslo generation', with their future prospects strangled and suffocated from birth...In protesting, however, they are empowered and afforded a degree of agency. The same can be said of recent attacks by Palestinians directed at Israelis. Such attacks cannot ­ despite the attempts of Israeli politicians ­ be in any way divorced from the horrendous suffering inflicted upon the occupied Palestinian populace over a period spanning some seven decades. Rather, these attacks are the natural result of a severe and prolonged deprivation... Such resistance is, therefore, indicative of both desperation and hope; `desperation' insofar as young men and women, feeling abandoned by the international community and the Palestinian political leadership, continue to engage in forms of resistance which may result in their own death 30 or maiming, and `hope' insofar as such acts demonstrate an enduring and powerful collective will on behalf of Palestinians to reject `victim' status, as well as a refusal to accept their exile as a permanent phenomenon...Ultimately, popular resistance can ­ and should ­ play a key role..." (Excerpt from "Using other forms of resistance," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "I'm a Stone Thrower," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "The ongoing occupation of Palestine, since 1948, shows another face of imperialist ambitions and destructive mechanism...The brutality of the occupation, have [sic] always been faced by the Palestinian resistance in [sic] every possible mean. Resisting and struggling for their independence, return, and freedom. The first and second uprising, the armed resistance, the steadfastness of the Palestinians inside and outside Palestine, the daily resistance of the people, the hunger strikes of the detainees, all come in the continues [sic] struggle of the Palestinians against the Zionist occupation." (Excerpt from "Thousands of Palestinian detainees in Israeli prisoners," World Federation of Democratic Youth, Accredited with General Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 31 "The Palestinian people's heroic resilience and resistance to Israel's denial of the Right of Return..." (Excerpt from "66 years of ongoing Nakba ­ Back to Basics: The Right of Return is a national and inalienable right," Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "BADIL Poster Contest, 2013, Caption translation: 'We are staying here'," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "Q: Is a two-state solution still possible? I don't believe so...Judaizing Area C ­ that's all been part of the plan. No way you can imagine a viable, contiguous state...I understand that when people are oppressed they will eventually resist and sometimes the resistance is violent." (Excerpt from "Rabbi Rosen Responds to the Questions of Iowans," American Friends Service Committee, Quakers are represented through the "Friends World Committee for Consultation 32 (FWCC)," accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...[T]he absurdity of negotiations which are nothing more than an American public relations stunt....[P]eace with the Israeli state of colonialism, racial discrimination and occupation is a sham...[W]e salute and pay tribute to the martyrs, wounded and prisoners of the march of return to Palestine...Glory and eternity to our faithful martyrs throughout the history of Arab-Zionist conflict." (Excerpt from "Statement Issued by the Global Coalition for the Palestinian Right of Return," AlAwda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "BADIL Poster, 2015," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 33 "Q: What is an intifada? A: Intifada is an Arabic word derived from a verb meaning "to shake off," and is the term used to describe the two major uprisings against Israeli military occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip." (Excerpt from "Israel/Palestine 101," Jewish Voice for Peace, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Many of our efforts to defy the arbitrary rules of the occupier are reflexively dismissed as "terrorism," and we are always expected to apologize for and condemn Palestinian resistancedespite the lack of agreement on a definition of terrorism, and the fact that the right to selfdetermination by armed struggle is permissible... Why is the word "terrorism" so readily applied to individuals or groups who use homemade bombs, but not to states...`[T]errorism' is a political term used by the colonizer to discredit those who resist as the Afrikaaners and Nazis named the Black and French freedom fighters, respectively... Armed resistance was used in the American Revolution, the Afghan resistance against Russia (which the U.S. supported), the French resistance against the Nazis, and even in the Nazi concentration camps, or, more famously, in the Warsaw Ghetto. Palestinian resistance arises out of a similarly oppressive situation... ...[T]he Israelis are practicing ethnic cleansing to secure the land for Jews alone." (Excerpt from "The Palestinian Resistance; Its Legitimate Right and the Moral Duty," If Americans Knew, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 28, 2016) "Happy #InternationalWomensDay! #Resistance #Palestine #IWD2015" (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "Al-Awda, The Palestine Right to Return Coalition, March 8, 2015," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 34 "For peoples engaged in struggle, the potency of symbolism is undeniable...Many images are also symbols, like the iconic photographs of...martyrs and freedom fighters." (Excerpt from "Symbols of Nakba, Visions of Return," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, July 23, 2014," U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "...[T]his is not a question of terrorism versus the innocents. This is a question of young people utterly suffocated...[W]hen you take a pillow to someone's face, when you suffocate them, they're going to fight back. They cannot be expected to lie back and die as you suffocate them. These children are the children of the pillow in my opinion. They're fighting to move the pillow from their face and all they're getting from the media around the world is belittlement and the title of terrorist...[T]he concept of nonviolence is bewildering. I think it is violence in terrible necessity that frames their politics. That is what is [on] the horizon; it's collapsed on their heads like the pillow." (Excerpt from "Palestine's Intifada: the Process of Liberation is Irresistible," The Jerusalem Fund (Palestine Center/Center for Policy Analysis on Palestine), (both NGOs) Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 35 "Trapped within this circle of despair, Palestinians are fighting back as colonised people have always done, with whatever weapons are close to hand...[M]any Israeli pundits are eagerly predicting a third intifada. They believe that in a situation of increased violence, the world will permit the Israeli government to commit more atrocities against the Palestinians in the West Bank, and perhaps even allow them to achieve their dream ­ and the Palestinian nightmare ­ of an ethnically purified Jerusalem... [I]t is a struggle between oppressor and oppressed...and colonial injustices that date back at least seven decades. With only stones, knives and petrol bombs Palestinian youth ­ male and female ­ are taking on the military might of the Israel's army of occupation...Resisting occupation is a right under international law, and this generation of Palestinian youth are saying `Khallas!', `Enough!' (Excerpt from "Israel's system of permanent violence: The new Palestinian uprising in context," and Facebook Page Entry: "Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign (IPSC), October 13, 2015," Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The Al-Quds Intifadah is the legitimate expression of the Palestinian people's will to resist continued subjugation and humiliation by the occupying power...What we witness today is not simply the repetition of the Palestinian Intifadah of the eighties. The Al-Quds Intifadah marks a decisive new step in the liberation struggle of the Arab people of Palestine..." (Excerpt from "Statement by Dr. Hans Köchler, President of the International Progress Organization, UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, 2000" International Progress Organization (IPO), Accredited with Roster Status by ECOSOC, associated with DPI, and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 36 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Mass Rally and March ­ April 7, New York," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "This December marks the 26th anniversary of the start of the First Intifada in 1987. Decades later, peace remains elusive and the struggle continues. Author, political activist and professor Mazin Qumsiyeh spoke with us about the phenomenon of uprisings and the meaning of Popular Resistance today...[L]ike all countries under colonization, Palestinians don't give up. We Palestinians have had 14 or 15 uprisings up until today. All of these uprisings achieved results... The term `Popular Resistance' is very broad. What types of actions are involved in popular resistance? First we must realize that resistance is as natural as breathing or eating because it is a survival skill. And there are hundreds of forms. Any colonized people try to use the means they have access to their minds, culture, religion or whatever their background compels them to use...And of course we should not forget armed resistance, but this is usually a minor component of struggle, simply because the majority of people chose nonviolent strategies. We instinctively resist, it's a biological, natural process...Some use violence, some not. It's hard to make generalizations. Isn't it controversial to suggest that circumstances can be used to justify any form of violence? I do not want to argue what is right and what is wrong. Most people are in the middle. And what means non-violence? When I throw a stone at a military tank, is that violence or not? Some people 37 consider how big the stone is, some consider whether my intention was to harm somebody or not. Non-violent and violent resistance are not antitheses; the distinctions are fuzzy, and under international law, oppressed people have a right and even an obligation to resist... This month it is the 26th anniversary of the beginning of the First Intifada...If you put a dog in a corner and beat him with a stick one or two times, maybe he won't have a reaction, but after a while the dog will at least bark at you or bite you... I think what happened in South Africa with the end of Apartheid will eventually happen in Palestine: we will have one secular democratic state. And we can achieve that only through resistance." (Excerpt from "Conditions for next uprising here," Alternatives, Action and Communication Network for International Development, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on February 24, 2014 and August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Long Live Free Palestine, (Leilah Khaled [hijacker]) Print," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 38 "Zionism is in denial of Palestinian reality and rights...Palestinians are left with no other alternative but to continue with their resistance to the racist colonial project." (Excerpt from "The Conflict in Palestine: Illusions of Peace and the Need for Effective Resistance," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "BADIL Poster Contest, 2015," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "...the people of Gaza...These incredible people will continue their struggle until victory or martyrdom." (Excerpt from "Gaza ­ One Year On," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 39 "...[W]e believe that it is important to look at the firing of rockets by Palestinian armed groups in context...It should be clear that the firing of rockets is intertwined with these ongoing Israeli military actions in Gaza. Rocket fire and violence from Gaza will not be ended through the use of increased military force, rather ending violence by armed Palestinian groups requires engagement with them and ending the blockade and the occupation of the Palestinian territory... What can you do? ... Contact your government representatives and demand that they call for an immediate change in U.S. government policy and support both the complete end to Israel's siege on Gaza and engagement with Hamas." (Excerpt from "Gaza Under Siege," American Friends Service Committee, represented through the Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC), accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Palestine Revolution" by Mohammad Hamza, Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "Resistance is a permanent fixture within the rigors of Palestinian daily life and existence...In 2011, Nakba Day proved highly significant in terms of the progression of resistance...Many of these protestors fell as martyrs..." (Excerpt from "The Fluidity of Resistance," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 40 "One of the tactics of the occupying power has been to depict the Palestinian resistance against foreign occupation as a form of terrorism..." (Excerpt from "Statement by Dr. Hans Köchler, President of the International Progress Organization, UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People, 2002," International Progress Organization (IPO), Accredited with Roster Status by ECOSOC, associated with DPI, and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Publisher: BADIL Resource Center, Sent in by Publisher," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "Australians for Palestine adopts the position that Israel is an apartheid state...Its policies are steeped in an exclusivist/supremacist ideology... Australians for Palestine recognises the right of Palestinians to legitimately resist Israel's oppressive occupation within the territories occupied in 1967." (Excerpt from "About Us," Australians for Palestine, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 41 "The relentless continuation of the Zionist regime as well as imperialist entities' support for its policies of colonization, ethnic cleansing and apartheid have led to a paralysis...The main obstacle to the advancement of Zionism is the heroic daily resistance of the Palestinians, manifested in the recent "youth intifada."... Zionism instrumentalizes the memory of the Holocaust as a tool to legitimize war crimes...[I]t is incumbent upon us to illuminate Israel's role in and profiteering off of the chaos in the Middle East as well as the rising phenomenon of Islamophobia across the globe. We must expose the fallacy of partition and the two-state solution..." (Excerpt from ­ "BDS: exposing the contradications of Zionism," Alternatives, Action and Communication Network for International Development, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Al Quds Day 2009, London," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "The third Intifada: A civilian response to Israel's unjust policies ...[T]he occupying power practices a systematic policy of apartheid...Recent activity on occupied Palestinian territories is seen as a `third intifada.' Palestinian citizens are frustrated and decided to take acts of resistance...[T]he third intifada is a consequence of depression and collective punishment." (Excerpt from "Joint written statement by International-Lawyers.org, the Arab Organization for Human Rights, the General Arab Women Federation, the Indian Movement "Tupaj Amaru", the International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Union of Arab Jurists non-governmental organizations in special consultative status, International Educational Development, Inc., the World Peace Council, non-governmental organizations on the roster, to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, February 17, 2016," International-Lawyers.org et al, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 42 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "PSC ­ Thailand, August 16, 2016," Palestine Solidarity Campaign ­ Thailand, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) Editor's note: On October 12, 2000, a Palestinian mob attacked and murdered two Israel Defense Forces reservists who had mistakenly driven past a checkpoint into Ramallah, where they were detained by Palestinian police and held in a local police station. They were beaten, stabbed, had their eyes gouged out, and were disemboweled. Palestinian Aziz Salha appeared at the window and displayed his blood-soaked hands to a large cheering crowd. The image of bloodied palms has been incorporated into various Palestinian campaigns. _______________________________________________ 43 "On 1 March the Ireland Palestinian Solidarity Campaign in Dublin is hosting a seminar "Palestine Binds Us." (NGO Action News, UNISPAL (a UN) website) Editor's note: The word "seminar" on the UNISPAL website is a direct link to the following: (Excerpt from "NGO Action News, February 26, 2016," Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Headline: "Jenin: Arab Lawyers Union honors family of Martyr [Shahida] Hanadi Jaradat" "Yesterday, the Arab Lawyers Union honored the family of martyred lawyer Hanadi Jaradat [i.e. suicide terrorist] from the city of Jenin, marking the ninth anniversary of her death as a Martyr, during a visit by a delegation representing the union to the family's home. The visiting delegation awarded a plaque from the Arab Lawyers Union to honor the family of Martyr Jaradat, who died a Martyr's death on Oct. 4, 2003, in an operation [i.e. terror attack] during which 19 Israelis were killed and about 50 injured. Member of the Palestine Committee of the Arab Lawyers Union, Ayman Abu Aysha, said that the honoring of the family of Martyr Jaradat came in the wake of a decision taken by the Palestine Committee of the Arab Lawyers Union during a meeting held in Cairo on Sept. 8, 2012. The delegation, which included Khatam Al-Hih, Muhammad Alan, Muhammad Halaweh, and Adi Alawi, conveyed to the family of Martyr Jaradat the good wishes of the head of the Union, Mr. Omar Al-Zayn, and of the head of the Palestine Committee in the Union, Mr. Said Abd Al-Ghani, 44 and also emphasized the pride of the Arab Lawyers Union for what their daughter had done in defense of Palestine and the nation. Deputy Secretary of the Arab Lawyers Union, Said Abd Al-Ghani, said that the Union created the "Martyr Hanadi Jaradat plaque of honor," the highest honor awarded by the Union in esteem for any [female] lawyer in the Arab homeland." (Excerpt from the Palestinian Daily Al-Ayyam, as translated and published by Palestinian Media Watch, Arab Lawyers Union is accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 45 III. Demonizing the State of Israel The UN accredits and associates with NGOs that demonize or incite hatred of Israel, hate that in turn encourages violent extremism and terrorism. The demonization takes various forms including: maintaining Zionism or the right of self-determination of the Jewish people is a form of racism, asserting Israel is an apartheid state, claiming that Israeli Jews are conspiring to destroy Muslim holy sites, charging Israel with extreme crimes ­ racism, massacres, atrocities, state terrorism, torture, experimenting on prisoners, targeting children, and alleging Israel is guilty of the worst human rights violations known to humankind ­genocide, ethnic cleansing, and crimes against humanity. Here is a sampling of the demonization of the Jewish state by UN-accredited NGOs. "...[T]he main manifestation of Zionist apartheid has been population transfer...This forcible transfer or ethnic cleansing started even prior to 1948 and is still ongoing today. ...The international community judged the South African apartheid regime based on its racist ideology...It is time to judge Israel similarly. The first significant step in that direction would be reinstating United Nations General Assembly Resolution 3379 of 10 November 1975 declaring Zionism as a form of racism..." (Excerpt from "Zionism: A Root Cause for Ongoing Population Transfer of Palestinians," BADIL, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 29, 2016) "To boost Israeli arms sales, Palestinian families have suffered three onslaughts of `systematic genocide' wars in six years and are condemned to a life that is unnatural and traumatic waiting for the next Israeli weapons testing. Gaza is a cemetery for over a thousand war-slaughtered children, a sealed death camp for 800,000 maimed and traumatised surviving children waiting for the next inevitable Israeli bombardment and stark terror." (Excerpt from "Saving Palestine's Children Under The Arms Trade Treaty," Third World Network, Accredited with Roster Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 46 "(5) The Israeli occupation tries to slowly kill prisoners by using medical negligence intentionally and leave prisoners exposed to deadly diseases, which makes their health worse over time... (9) The Israeli occupation is the world's only entity in which doctors torture and blackmail prisoners... (12) Some indicates [sic] that the occupation doctors have been experimenting drugs on prisoners and this was assured by some Israeli officials." (Excerpt from "The Israeli Occupation Violates Prisoners' Health Rights Through the Following, Written Statement by the Khiam Rehabilitation Center to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, February 5, 2016," Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "This year uncovered, for the first time, the practice of extracting human organs from killed Palestinians whose bodies were in the hands of Israeli forces and the sale of these organs." (Excerpt from "2011 -- Palestine: Hopes, Frustrations and Hypocrisy," International Organization for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed August 25, 2016) "Ethnic Cleansing Historians have cataloged the brutal ethnic cleansing of Palestinian villages and towns during the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948. What is now becoming more publicly understood is that ethnic cleansing which began with the establishment of the state of Israel continues today." (Excerpt from "Ethnic Cleansing," Palestine Solidarity Campaign ­ United Kingdom, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Colonialism, the "subjection of peoples to alien subjugation, domination and exploitation" is thus core to any analysis of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. The conflict is colonial because it is rooted in political Zionism which aims to Judaize Palestine by creating a Jewish majority over Mandate Palestine - or more expansively, Eretz Israel. At the heart of Zionism is thus an exclusivist project: the creation of a Jewish state for the Jewish people. Such a project involves or necessitates the denial of the other...In its practical implementation, Zionism translates into a sophisticated legal, social, economic and political regime of racial discrimination that has led to colonialism and apartheid as well as the dispossession and displacement of the Palestinian people." (Excerpt from "Applicability of the Crime of Apartheid to Israel," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "As 2015 draws to a calamitous close, the calendar of human rights and, in particular, Palestinian rights concludes with significant commemorations...for analysts and campaigners to consider:...70 years since the UN General Assembly's partition resolution 181 and Zionist forces' implementation of their village-massacre and terror campaign (November 1947);" (Excerpt from "New Year's Resolutions for Palestinian Right," Habitat International Coalition, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 28, 2016) 47 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, October 31, 2015," Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "Aims and Objectives The organization has been established to campaign:... ˇ for the right of return of the Palestinian people... ˇ in opposition to racism, including anti-Jewish prejudice and the apartheid and Zionist nature of the Israeli state." (Excerpt from "Aims and Objectives," Palestine Solidarity Campaign -Thailand, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "We should also work to compel the EU to recognize that Israeli apartheid is the system that applies on both sides of the 1967 Green Line." (Excerpt from "Campaigning for Palestinian Rights in Europe," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 48 "The Center for Constitutional Rights (CCR), the National Lawyers Guild (NLG)... as well as other legal groups sent on 22 August 2014 a letter to International Criminal Court Prosecutor Fatou Bensouda, urging her to use the Court's power under Article 15 of the Rome Statute to initiate an investigation into war crimes, genocide, and crimes against humanity committed by the Israeli Government." (NGO Action News, UNISPAL (a UN) website) Editor's note: The word "letter" on the UNISPAL website is a direct link to the following: "Genocide:...the National Lawyers Guild and endorsing organizations specifically request that the Office of the Prosecutor determine whether Israeli officials may be implementing a plan to destroy the Palestinian population, at least in part." (Excerpt from "NGO Action News, August 28, 2014," National Lawyers Guild, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "In 1973, the United Nations rightly condemned "the unholy alliance between Portuguese colonialism, South African racism, Zionism and Israeli imperialism."... In the case of Israel, Zionist ideology is the driving force behind the ongoing Palestinian reality of apartheid...[T]he Palestinians, wherever they reside, are collectively exposed to one coherent structure of Zionist apartheid...This continuous and calculated targeting of the Palestinian people must be challenged by the international community as it was regarding South Africa where that state's actions and policies were codified into elements of an international crime against humanity." (Excerpt from "Zionist apartheid: a crime against humanity," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "In practice to fulfill the dreams of Zionist leaders, ethnic cleansing was and continues to be practiced. After taking 78% of the land from its native people and expelling over three fourths of them, Zionism still was not satisfied and Israeli leaders are aggressively and violently insisting on partitioning the remaining 22% (apartheid) while insisting on no return of Palestinian refugees and on maintaining racist laws that discriminate against non-Jews. The idea is to keep the Jewish character of the state." (Excerpt from "What is Zionism?" Women for Palestine - Australians for Palestine, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...[O]ccupation is practicing the organized terrorism and the ugliest crimes on daily basis against Palestinian people..." [sic] (Excerpt from "United Nations Seminar on Assistance to the Palestinian People," World Federation of Trade Unions, Accredited with General Consultative Status by ECOSOC, associated with DPI, and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Israel's occupation of the Palestinian territories has many features of colonization. At the same time it has many of the worst characteristics of apartheid...Many aspects of Israel's occupation surpass those of the apartheid regime...No wall was ever built to separate blacks and whites." (Excerpt from "Apartheid: Israelis adopt what South Africa dropped," Women for Palestine Australians for Palestine, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 49 "Open letter to John Baird, Canadian Foreign Minister Mr. Baird: Your latest call for the removal of Richard Falk, the U.N. Special Rapporteur for the Palestinian Territories, smacks of hypocrisy and racism; ... Your comments...deny the terrible suffering and the slow genocide of the Palestinian people since the Zionist ethnic cleansing started in 1947/48...Mr. Baird: Don't Equate Zionism with Judaism". Stop taking your marching orders from Tel Aviv... Hanna Kawas, Chairperson, Canada Palestine Association" (Excerpt from "Mr. Baird: Stop Slandering Richard Falk," Canada Palestine Association, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "The Paradox of Using the Law of the Oppressor," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 15, 2016) _______________________________________________ "The Palestinians are still suffering from the occupation of their country, given to them by the United Nations...(Baroness Jenny Tonge). As a journalist, I have walked through the killing fields of Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon and Sri Lanka and seen death close up...I have never before witnessed one group of people deriving so much pleasure and joy from inflicting so much pain and suffering on another group of people including their babies and infants. The injustice that is Palestine is there for all to see if only you will look...Zionism can be defined as a political movement that supports an exclusive homeland for Jewish people in the land of Palestine... Zionism is a purely political movement which is not based on religious doctrine...`Zionism is diametrically opposed to Judaism.'...Over the past 60 years, Palestinians of all ages have been victims of Israeli violence and occupation...The UN is under no more of a legal obligation to maintain Zionism in Israel than it is to maintain apartheid in the Republic of South Africa." (Excerpt from "The Palestinian Nakba, 1948-2008: 60 Years of Catastrophe," Friends of Al-Aqsa, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 28, 2016) 50 "On behalf of workers organised in the Trade Union International of Energy (TUI) which is part of a bigger class oriented workers movement organized in 120 Countries under the banner of the World Federation of Trade Union (WFTU), we wish to pledge solidarity with the people of Palestine and the working class of the country who are in a relentless struggle against national oppression, imperialism and economic exploitation of the apartheid regime of Israel. The Israel government with its Zionist ideology has intensified its brutality and repression to organised formations of the working class in the country and civil society organisations in general... To this end, we...call for the immediate release of the activists languishing in apartheid prisons in Israel." (Excerpt from "TUI Energy Solidarity Statement," World Federation of Trade Unions, Accredited with General Consultative Status by ECOSOC, associated with DPI, and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Sick and wounded prisoners' testimonies in the Israeli occupation prisons The prisoner "ThaerAziz Halahleh" said that he was infected with hepatitis deliberately by the occupation prisons service doctor..." (Excerpt from "Sick and wounded prisoners' testimonies in the Israeli occupation prisons, Written statement by the Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, February 5, 2016," Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...Israeli forces increasingly employ excessive force and target children with live ammunition to quash protests." (Excerpt from "Statement on behalf of Defence for Children International ­ Palestine Section, Observance of UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2015," Defence for Children International ­ Palestine Section, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Israeli policy in the West Bank is a form of apartheid in intent and implementation. Ethnic-based, as opposed to race-based, it shares an important characteristic with the South African model...The West Bank has become a place of bantustans..." (Excerpt from "Of Walls and Bantustans: Apartheid By Any Other Name," Women for Palestine Australians for Palestine, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "[T]he occupying power has so far continued a systematic system of apartheid..." (Excerpt from "Oral statement by the International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, March 24, 2014," EAFORD, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 51 "BADIL urge the Human Rights Council: To investigate the practices and policies of the state of Israel aimed at apartheid..." (Excerpt from "Oral statement by BADIL to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, March 24, 2014," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Palestinian Centre for Human Rights Poster, The State of Apartheid," Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 52 "Hundreds of British nationals, including Muslims, civil and anti-war activists, and anti-Zionist Jews have taken part in the annual Al-Quds Day demonstration in London...Demonstrators carried Palestinian and Hezbollah flags and various anti-Zionist placards reading "Zionism is racism", ... "end the Israeli Apartheid", "stop funding genocide", ... "63 years of occupation must end", ... and "boycott Israel"...Moreover, the Pro-Palestinian demonstrators chanted: "we are all Hezbollah", ... "Zionism terrorism"... Chairman of the Islamic Human Rights Commission in London, Masoud Shajareh, who organizes Al-Quds Day demonstrations in London, said that Al-Quds Day is the international day of protesting against oppression." (Excerpt from "Al-Quds Day demonstration in London," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Israel, popularly known as the "Derailed Son of USA", now has called for a unilateral ceasefire in the Gaza strip after a three-week long genocide..." (Excerpt from "Open Letter: Superpowers should co-operate with the UN to reach an immediate permanent solution of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict for the sake of world Peace," PCCIIS International Inc., (The Publication and Coordination Center of Islamic Ideology and Sufi-ism), Accredited with DPI associated status, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The violence of the powerful Israeli occupation army which uses live ammunition, tanks and helicopter gun ships is at best equated with the violence of Palestinian civilians protesting their victimization and continued loss of rights, lands and lives. Moreover, if we are not grateful for this form of occupation, colonization and the isolated Bantustans under Israel's apartheid system, then we will be pounded into submission." (Excerpt from "Being Faithful Witnesses," Friends World Committee for Consultation, Accredited with General Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "People of the world watch in horror as the racist state of Israel, with the support and encouragement of the US government, engages in a genocidal project to eliminate the indigenous Arab people of Palestine." (Excerpt from "Break the silence on Gaza! Don't delay! Time is of the essence!," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Nothing demonstrates the existence of one (apartheid) state more graphically than Israel's policy of house demolitions. Since 1948, Israel has demolished almost 100,000 Palestinian homes... Historians have described this as a process of ethnic cleansing. Israel officially calls it "judaization" which is continuing today on both sides of the "Green Line", thus throughout all of historic Palestine." (Excerpt from "Written statement by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, February 16, 2016," Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 53 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Al Quds Day 2015, London," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "...[T]he Israeli leadership had intended and carried out the ethnic cleansing of most of the Palestinian population during 1948." (Excerpt from "Why Israel has silenced the 1948 story of Nazareth's survival," Malaysian Social Research Institute (MSRI) - Sponsorship of Palestinian Children, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 54 "P4PD condemns the separation wall as a wall of apartheid..." (Excerpt from "The Wall," Palestinians for Peace and Democracy, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...Israel's active policy of ethnic cleansing of Palestinians from their homeland...Since September 2000, Israel, whether through their military or through settler violence has systematically murdered 6876 Palestinian civilians, of which a quarter of them were children." (Excerpt from "PNGO urges international community to end Israel's endemic impunity with regards to their ethnic cleansing policies," Palestinian NGO Network, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...[S]tone-throwing Palestinian children are jailed, abused, traumatized, tortured ... day and night, deprived of their inalienable rights to live as children live everywhere in the world..." (Excerpt from "Oral statement by the International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, June 20, 2015," International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Gaza ­ One Year On," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 55 "The deliberate targeting of Palestinian children has become a notable feature of the Israeli occupation in the OPT...the Israeli Occupation Forces (IOF) have long killed, beaten, tortured, arrested and arbitrarily detained Palestinian children." (Excerpt from "Special Focus on Palestinian Children: Targeting Palestine Through Its Future," AlHaq, Law in the Service of Man, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Zionist politicians like Israel's first Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion (1886-1973) mastered the plans for ethnic cleansing, brutal combatant units like Menachem Begin's (1913-92) IrgunZvaiLeumi slayed whole villagers, regular army detachments of General Yitzhak Rabin (1922-95) unsparingly overran Arab territories, and the biblical experts, in conjunction with some archaelogists, helped Hebraize Palestine's geography. The ethnic cleansing of the Palestinians was the product of the Zionist ideology that eventually aimed at an exclusive Jewish state in Palestine...[T]he Jewish forces were busy committing the early atrocities, including mass murders, poisening of water supplies and rapes... Presently, Israel is reactivating its cleaning program in ongoing attempts to preserve its absolute Jewish majority." (Excerpt from "The Ethnic Cleansing of Palestine," International Organization for the Elimination of all Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Recalling the persecution of the Jews and, ultimately, the Holocaust, conceals Israel's power as well as the injustice, illegality and wanton brutality of its treatment of the Palestinians. It also enables Israel to cast itself as the victim, although this is wearing thin." (Excerpt from "Roots of Resistance: We all have a responsibility to turn resistance into liberation," Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Israel's regime is no less racist than the South African one..." (Excerpt from "Campaigns," Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Since its imposition in 1948 in Palestine, the Israeli state has not only neglected the rights of the child, but has killed, injured, imprisoned and tortured, and used Palestinian children as human shields. It has targeted playgrounds and schools." (Excerpt from "Urgent Action: Demand Freedom for the Children of Palestine," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Every single day since the Palestinian flag was raised, at least one Palestinian has unjustly died at the hands of Israeli forces." (Excerpt from "Oral statement by the Global Network for Right and Development to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, March 21, 2016," Global Network for Right and Development, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 56 "[T]he Israeli government is lying about prison conditions and security excuses... Israeli occupation forces systematically target human rights defenders in Palestine with arbitrary arrest, torture, and death threats...We are human targets... We support all calls to boycott Israel." (Excerpt from "Oral statement by the International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD) to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, June 10, 2013," EAFORD, Accredited with Special Consultative Status with ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Apartheid Over Palestine," Palestinian Centre for Human Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 15, 2016) _______________________________________________ 57 "I bear the burden of submitting to the Human Rights Council of the atrocities that are being committed by the most abominable occupying force this world has ever known...It is incontrovertible that Israel has legislated discriminatory practices and institutionalized racism constituting apartheid." (Excerpt from "Oral statement by the Khiam Rehabilitation Center to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, March 21, 2016," Khiam Rehabilitation Center for Victims of Torture, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Stand with Palestine, say NO to the racist reign of terror." (Excerpt from "Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition's National Rally to Support Palestine & Protest AIPAC in Washington DC," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on April 20, 2016) "Israel's conduct represents a series of measures designed to establish and maintain the domination of one racial group over another. Such domination by the Jewish group is associated with transferring control over land and natural resources, including water, to exclusively Jewish use...This reveals the true nature of this occupation as one that enables Israel to maintain a regime of apartheid." (Excerpt from "Statement at the UN Committee on the Elimination of Racial Discrimination, 80th Session," Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The U.S. seeks stability in the Middle East (mostly by supporting dictators) and Israel is constantly making things unstable (mostly by practicing ethnic cleansing against Palestinians, illegally colonizing conquered lands and launching massive assaults against its neighbors)...In Israel, religious-based discrimination is the law." (Excerpt from "BDS in the Crosshairs," International Organization for the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (EAFORD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The Israeli government is...continuing to implement its apartheid regime..." (Excerpt from "Monthly BDS March ­ United against Apartheid and Occupation ­ Justice for the Palestinian People," Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Zionist oppression does not stop even after death! "...Living under the Israeli occupation, we are damned if we are alive, and we are damned if we are dead."" (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "Perdana Global Peace Foundation, May 31, 2016," (quoting from If Americans Knew), Perdana Global Peace Foundation and If Americans Knew, both accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 58 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, September 12, 2015," Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 24, 2016) _______________________________________________ "...Israel is increasingly unable to defend its regime of apartheid and settler colonialism over the Palestinian people and its regular massacres of Palestinians..." (Excerpt from "European call: Stop the criminalisation of the BDS movement for justice in Palestine!" European Coordinating Committee of Committees and Associations for Palestine, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Israel also uses the occupied territories as laboratories for testing weapons..." (Excerpt from "Most aid to Palestinians ends up in Israel's coffers," Council for the National Interest Foundation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 59 "...[E]very day the Israeli occupation forces take Palestinian children from their homes, often at night, to transfer them handcuffed and blindfolded to interrogation centres, where they suffer physical and psychological torture." (Excerpt from "Oral statement by the MAARIJ Foundation for Peace and Development to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, March 21, 2016," MAARIJ Foundation for Peace and Development, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...Israel's systematic destruction of ... Palestinian villages, towns and urban neighborhoods in 1948 and after ... and its ongoing policy of demolishing the homes of Palestinian citizens of Israel ...[T]he picture that emerges is one of institutional racial discrimination and ethnic displacement. We are witnessing ... `Judaization.'" (Excerpt from "Oral statement by the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, March 24, 2014," Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Each year, on 15 May, `Nakba Day' commemorates the anguish of those who were expelled from their homes...While the term Nakba is seen as a reference to the murder, exile and devastation of the 1948 war, in reality, it could just as easily be used to describe the current belligerent occupation...Palestinians in 2012 still experience `the catastrophe'...an uninterrupted stream of violations of international law that began more than sixty years ago." (Excerpt from "The Nakba: The Perpetuation of an Unwanted Legacy," Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed August 25, 2016) "...[M]ore than 65 years of Palestinian suffering resulting from the Nakba (the uprooting of the Palestinian people from their land in 1948) and the subsequent serious and systematic violations of human rights...have amounted to the level of war crimes and crimes against humanity...All of this comes with approving the construction of annexation wall, which has seized about 58% of the Palestinian lands and property and has turned Palestinians' life on the rest of their lands into ghettos and Bantustans. Meanwhile, the ethnic cleansing in East Jerusalem and forced displacement of its Arab residents continue...The precise description of the current situation in East Jerusalem is a unique apartheid...Israeli forces continue to commit crimes in the Gaza Strip through full-scale military attacks and through imposing an illegal total closure on the civilian population as these crimes constitute collective punishment and crimes against humanity..." (Excerpt from "International Human Rights Day: Palestinian People's Suffering Continues," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "...Israeli democracy... instutionalization of racial and religious differences and the apartheid system..." (Excerpt from "Submission to the Universal Periodic Review of Israel by the UN Human Rights Council, Jan/Feb 2013," Organization for Defending Victims of Violence, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and associated with DPI, last accessed on August 26, 2016) 60 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Standing Against Apartheid," US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "The international community had given away what did not belong to them in order to salve their collective conscience for the Holocaust...Their creed was never again would their people be slaughtered even if Palestinians were to die to make that point." (Excerpt from "War crimes and criminals - some thoughts on Ariel Sharon," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Israel: Facism or Apartheid. Handwringing about Israel's transformation into a facist state ignores the way it has used apartheid since its inception." (Excerpt from "Israel: Facism or Apartheid," Alternatives Action and Communication Network for International Development, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "I could share stories of the...apartheid laws." (Excerpt from "A blink of occupation: A Palestinian woman's excerpt of life under occupation," Lisa Sabella Communications Officer, World Vision International, Accredited with General Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 26, 2016) 61 "Similar to South African Christians...Palestinian Christians not only see an Apartheid system at work here in the West Bank and Gaza but also recognise that now is an opportune moment to speak out with one voice." (Excerpt from "Faith, hope, and love towards justice & reconciliation in the Holy Land," Lisa Sabella Communications Officer, World Vision International, Accredited with General Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 26, 2016) Mohammed Khalil El Halabi, UN "Humanitarian Hero:" "Why did you become a humanitarian worker or volunteer? ...After an invasion in my area which killed dozens of people and destroyed several houses, I decided to leave my work as an engineer and turn to humanitarian work. I wanted to be able to help civilians and especially children - to ensure they are protected and to deliver services for their survival...I decided to fully dedicate my life to helping people and children to restore their lives. ...The most rewarding part is when we manage to restore the smiles of children who are severely traumatized by the devastating bombs which killed part or all of their families..[W]e have to reach displaced people and children during the conflict which can be dangerous. Recently, I was on my way to the hospital to provide medical supplies to respond to the huge number of injuries they receive every day and less than a minute separated me from being under rubble after an F16 plane destroyed a house in the same road... Tell us a little bit about the work you do? In addition to managing development programs, I have managed emergency and early recovery responses in Gaza after the previous wars. I'm currently managing the World Vision emergency response in which we provide hospitals with medical supplies, disposables and bed sheets. We also provide people who are staying in informal shelters with food and hygiene kits. The biggest intervention we implement is the psycho-social activity...One of the children in our programs in 2009 had lost two of her young cousins and her hair was burnt after a white phosphorous bomb has fallen on her home...A few months after she joined our programs, she became a leader...singing for peace. I...will never forget the happiness I felt at this moment." (Excerpt from "UN World Humanitarian Hero: Mohammed Khalil El Halabi," last accessed on August 28, 2016) Editor's note: The UN designated Mohammed Khalil El Halabi, the director of the Gaza branch of the UN-accredited NGO World Vision a UN "Humanitarian Hero" on August 19, 2014. He was prominently featured on the UN website promoting claims of wanton Israeli attacks on the vulnerable and his heroism in coming to their assistance ­ that is until the feature was quietly removed by the UN in August 2016. The deletion came after El Halabi was exposed and arrested by Israel as a Hamas operative who had been directing 60% of World Vision's annual multi-million dollar humanitarian aid budget towards terrorist activities. 62 IV. Delegitimizing the State of Israel and Seeking the Destruction of the Jewish State The incitement to hate, the demonization of Israel, and the support for violence has a goal: the destruction of the state of Israel. Sometimes this goal ­ wiping a Jewish state off the map ­ is camouflaged, but some UN accredited or associated NGOs are quite clear about their intentions. The UN, therefore, accredits and associates with NGOs that espouse the destruction of a UN member state. This call takes various forms: objections to the creation of Israel, denying a Jewish presence in historic Palestine, rejecting a Jewish historical and religious connection to the land, references not to Israel but to an entity called "Israel/Palestine," putting references to Israel in quotation marks, images of "Palestine" as all of Israel, calling for a one-state solution, and demanding an alleged "right of return" that would terminate a Jewish state demographically. They also include boycott, divestment or sanction campaigns seeking the economic strangulation of Israel, intending to destroy the viability of Israel on multiple levels, and attempting to fracture the international relationships necessary for the survival of the Jewish state. Here is a sampling of the delegitimization of the UN member state of Israel by UN-accredited NGOs _______________________________________________ . (Excerpt from "Nakba Day Awareness and Information Stall," Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 63 "We are proud of the struggle and resilience of the Palestinian people who continue to make great sacrifices, 65 years after the Nakba, against occupation and oppression for their dignity freedom and self-determination...The conference affirmed the need to intensify efforts to face the systematic expulsion of Palestinians in the West Bank and occupied Palestine in 1948 territories...The conference stresses historical responsibility of Europe for the Palestinian Nakba and displacement of 1948. Generations of Palestinian people are still paying the price of Europe's mistake...We announce our full support for the International Campaign demanding an apology from Britain for the Balfour declaration which marks the beginning of Palestinian suffering." (Excerpt from "The Final Statement of the 11th Palestinians in Europe Conference ­ Brussels," Islamic Human Rights Commission, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The World YWCA fully supports the Right of Return for Palestinians. The fabric of Palestinian lives was ripped apart between 1947-1949 when over 750,000 Palestinians were forced from their homes and lands. War, genocide, military rule, and terror have existed ever since." (Excerpt from "Palestine: The Right of Return," World Young Women's Christian Association (World YWCA), Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and by the CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Right of return," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) Editor's note: The Jewish state of Israel is quite literally wiped off the map of the "Palestine" advocated by UN-accredited NGOs. "Palestine" is depicted as all of Israel, in addition to Gaza and the West Bank. "Return" is to a pre-1948 condition, or return by Palestinians in such numbers (one UN-accredited NGO puts the number at 11,297,150 and climbing, see below) as to guarantee the end of a Jewish majority. _______________________________________________ 64 _______________________________________________ Translation: 11,297,150 - The number of Palestinian individuals in Palestine and the Exile (combined) 37% - Are in the West Bank and the Gaza Strip 12.5% - Are outside the Green Line: the land occupied in 1948 % 50.2 - Of Palestinians are in exile outside of the homeland % 49.8 - Of Palestinians are refugees 59 - The number of refugee camps officially registered with UNWRA Does any of this concern/worry you? 66 Years since the Palestinian Nakba/Catastrophe (Excerpt from "Publisher: BADIL Resource Center, Sent in by Publisher," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 65 "Zionism: In the late 1800s a group in Europe decided to colonize this land. Known as Zionists, they represented an extremist minority of the Jewish population...[T]he indigenous population became increasingly alarmed. Eventually, fighting broke out..." (Excerpt from "History of the Israeli-Palestinian Conflict," Council for the National Interest Foundation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Al-Awda NY logo," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "...[W]e refer Member States of the UN to the following remedial actions that could and should be undertaken... 3. Freezing the assets of legal and natural persons responsible for violation in international law; 4. Downgrading diplomatic relations with States committing and abetting these offenses; 5. Ending cooperation with Israel's parastatal institutions involved in funding or maintaining Israel's illegal settlement enterprises (including the World Zionist Organisation, the Jewish Agency, the Jewish National Fund, the United Israel Appeal, Mekorot and its affiliates) and revoking their privileged charitable status; 6. Imposing international and domestic sanctions on institutions supporting, or benefitting from settler colonies and/or natural-resource extraction in Palestine; 7. Withholding weapons, building materials, equipment and services that maintain the settler colony regime... 9. Reviewing any assistance to, or cooperation with, the State Israeli [sic], which may directly or indirectly aid the settler colony regime." (Excerpt from "Joint written statement by Al-Haq, BADIL, Al Mezan and Habitat International Coalition to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, May 31, 2013," Al-Haq, Law in the Service of Man, BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Al Mezan Centre for Human Rights, and Habitat International Coalition, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 66 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Homepage," Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions (ICAHD) - USA, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 15, 2016) _______________________________________________ "Introduction:...[T]he Zionist movement, from the beginning, looked forward to a practically complete dispossession of the indigenous Arab population so that Israel could be a wholly Jewish state...Zionism was based on a faulty, colonialist world view that the rights of the indigenous inhabitants didn't matter... "By 1948, the Jew was not only able to `defend himself' but to commit massive atrocities as well... `[E]very skirmish ended in a massacre of Arabs.'" (Norman Finkelstein...) Zionism and the Holocaust:...The Holocaust is often used as the final argument in favor of Zionism, but is this connection justified?... Shamir proposes an alliance with the Nazis: As late as 1941, the Zionist group LEHI, one of whose leaders, Yitzhak Shamir, was later to become a prime minister of Israel, approached the Nazis, using the name of its parent organization, the Irgun (NMO)...The NMO in Palestine offers to take an active part in the war on Germany's side'..." (Allan Brownfield...) Wasn't the main goal of Zionism to save Jews from the Holocaust?: ..."The Zionist movement...interfered with and hindered other organizations, Jewish and non-Jewish, whenever it imagined that their activity, political or humanitarian, was at variance with Zionist aims or in competition with them, even when these might be helpful to Jews, even when it was a question of life and death..." (Israeli author Boas Evron...) Victimology: "Jewish proponents of the `victim' card are aware not only of its social effectiveness but of its usefulness as a means of insuring Jewish solidarity and, hence, survival...It wallows in evil imagery and postulates a forever morally superior Jew, victimized by the forever morally inferior `goy'...(Victimology) allows Jews to bypass their own faith and offers the national allegiance of Holocaust/Israel in its place." (Rabbi Mayer Schiller...) 67 Jewish Fundamentalism In Israel: The fundamentalist wing of the Jewish religion, while certainly not representative of Judaism as a whole, is influential in Israel...The following quotes show the racism inherent in this world-view and why its influence should be opposed by all rational people. Ideological basis of racism in Israel: "The Talmud states that...two contrary types of souls exist, a non-Jewish soul comes from the Satanic spheres, while the Jewish soul stems from holiness..." (Israel Shahak and Norton Mezvinsky...) Conclusion I, For Jewish Readers: As we have seen, the root cause of the Palestine-Israel conflict is clear. During the 1948 war, 750,000 Palestinians fled in terror or were actively expelled from their ancestral homeland and turned into refugees. The state of Israel then refused to allow them to return...This was the birth of the state of Israel... Conclusion II:... Zionism was based on the total disregard of the rights of indigenous inhabitants. As such, it is morally indefensible." (Excerpt from "The Origin of the Palestine-Israel Conflict," If Americans Knew, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) Editor's note: for refutations of falsified statements purportedly made by Zionists see CAMERA "The Palestinian people mark Prisoners' Day on April 17 every year, expressing the continuity of struggle to liberate detainees in the occupation jails. It's a day of freedom. A day of refusing injustice, chains, and the dominance of occupiers over their life and dignity." (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, April 17, 2013," U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on Aug. 24, 2016) 68 "...[I]n 1948...Israel ethnically cleansed the Palestinian population. While Zionist officials brought millions of Jews from around the world to populate Israel, exiled Palestinians became refugees...This expulsion and the failure to resolve it constitute the root of the Palestinian-Israeli conflict." (Excerpt from "History of Palestine and Palestinians," Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "More than sixty years after Palestinians experienced the "Nakba" ­ the catastrophe that led to the loss of Palestinian land and sovereignty ­ and Israelis celebrated the founding of the modern state of Israel, the reality on the ground is worsening." (Excerpt from "Israeli & Palestine Conflict," Pax Christi International, International Catholic Peace Movement, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and associated with DPI, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from Facebook Page Entry: "BADIL Resource Center, May 14, 2014," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "Shlomo Sand:...Exactly 90 years ago...From that time to the present an Israeli society came into being...Does that culture, that society, have a future? I doubt it... I am very pessimistic about Israel existing. I'm almost certain it won't...I am very Israeli...I wrote a book, When and How I Stopped Being a Jew..." (Excerpt from "Will Israel exist in 90 years from now? (Uri Avnery's 90th Birthday Event)," Gush Shalom (Peace Bloc), Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 69 "People can't understand what is happening today unless they know about the Nakba. We hope that PSC's week of events in May will heighten awareness of how the indigenous Palestinian population was violently forced from its land in 1948 for the sake of Israel." (Excerpt from "Nakba Week of Action," Palestine Solidarity Campaign ­ United Kindom, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 23, 2016) "...Palestinians have been and remain victims of a determined and unwavering ethnic cleansing policy that began in 1947-48 and continues until today... [I]t is important that when we examine the subject of ethnic cleansing in Palestine, we take into account its various dimensions, one of which is the accompanying racist discourse... Without such discourse, which depicted the original inhabitants of Palestine as cancerous, subhuman and a nuisance in the face of civilization and progress - as defined by the founders of the Zionist movement - it would not have been possible to carry out a systematic campaign of murder and ethnic cleansing in 1947-48..." (Excerpt from "Ethnic Cleansing and Israel's Racist Discourse," Women for Palestine - Australians for Palestine, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 24, 2016) "A rarely told story of the 1948 war that founded Israel concerns Nazareth's survival. It is the only Palestinian city in what is today Israel that was not ethnically cleansed during the year-long fighting." (Excerpt from "Why Israel has silenced the 1948 story of Nazareth's survival," Malaysian Social Research Institute (MSRI) - Sponsorship of Palestinian Children, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 23, 2016) 70 "Youm al-Ard [Land Day] is particularly significant because it was the first time since the 1948 occupation that Palestinian Arabs in "Israel" organized a response to Zionist occupation policies as a Palestinian national collective." (Excerpt from "Youm Al-Ard, Land Day in Southern California," Al-Awda, The Palestine Right To Return Coalition, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) Editor's note: So-called "Land Day" marks the events of March 30, 1976 in which violent confrontations took place with Arabs in Israel over claims of Israeli expropriation of "Arab" land. "Israel defines itself as a Jewish state and conditions its existence upon the maintenance of a Jewish majority. Indeed, the Zionist movement that established Israel in 1948 combined Jewish nationalism with the colonial practice of transplanting people, mostly from Europe, into Palestine with the support of European colonial powers. For the past 66 years, Israel has continued its practice of settler implantation and the removal of indigenous Palestinians... [T]he manifestation of Israel's ideology is forced population transfer." (Excerpt from "Joint written statement by BADIL to the UN Human Rights Council, Agenda Item 7, February 17, 2014," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 71 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Right to Return Campaign," Association-Najdeh, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "...[T]he land Israel took through terror and war in 1948...When the true heirs of the land, those who are native in every sense ­ historically, culturally, legally, genetically ­ recognise Israel as a Jewish state, they are effectively giving away their claims to their own homeland." (Excerpt from "ABULHAWA: Of negotiations and high treason ­ Israel-Palestine `peace'," Australians for Palestine, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Nakba is the Arabic word used to describe the events of 1948, when over 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes, civilians were massacred & hundreds of their villages deliberately destroyed. 60 years later, they are still waiting to return." (Excerpt from "Nakba Campaign: 1948 ­ present," Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed August 25, 2016) 72 _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation - Legal and Tactical Guide," U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ "Present-day Israel is simply known as "48" to Palestinians within it; "48" refers to 1948, the year Israel was established amid the Nakba, the forced displacement of approximately 750,000 Palestinians." (Excerpt from "Braving threats, Palestinians in Israel revive boycott," Friends of Al-Aqsa, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 73 "I have therefore also been very involved in the boycott, divestment and sanctions efforts of many sectors of civil society. I am happy to share some of those experiences today...I want to challenge us all by examining some of the actions of complicity by the international community that have too long supported, intensified and even profited from Israel's long-standing colonization of Palestinian land...I conclude by thanking the Committee once again for its invitation and by inviting each Member State to join in solidarity actions by ending our own complicity...Maybe, as we join our actions, our boycott, divestment and sanctions, they will speak louder than our words in solidarity with the exercise of the inalienable rights of the Palestinian people." (Excerpt from "Statement by David Wildman, Executive Secretary for Human Rights and Racial Justice with the United Methodist Church's General Board of Global Ministries at Observance of UN International Day of Solidarity with the Palestinian People 2013," United Methodist Church General Board of Global Ministries, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and associated with DPI, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "I was honored...to write a few words on what the US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation means to us in the Palestinian Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) National Committee (BNC). As the largest coalition of U.S. organizations working for the comprehensive, UNstipulated rights of the Palestinian people and towards ending U.S. complicity in Israel's regime of occupation, colonization and apartheid which denies those rights, the US Campaign is simply the BNC's most important strategic ally and partner in the U.S." (Excerpt from "Will you stand with me behind the US Campaign?" U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions (BDS)," Palestine Solidarity Campaign ­ United Kingdom, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 24, 2016) _______________________________________________ 74 "Take Action: What you can do. 1. #CHECKTHELABEL. On all produce you buy. Do not buy produce from Israel, West Bank or the Jordan Valley...Through boycott, we isolate Israel and send a clear message that the global grassroots communities will not stand by and do nothing while Israel murders innocent Palestinian women and children." (Excerpt from "#CHECKTHELABEL," Friends of Al-Aqsa, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Overpass Action: Thousands of rush hour commuters saw this powerful message "Boycott Israeli Apartheid" (Excerpt from "Boycott, Divestment & Sanctions," Coalition to Stop $30 Billion to Israel, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "What is JVP's position on BDS?: The boycott/divestment/sanctions movement (BDS) encompasses a variety of tactics and targets. JVP rejects the assertion that BDS is inherently anti-Semitic...JVP defends activists' right to use the full range of BDS tactics..." (Excerpt from "Jewish Voice for Peace and BDS," Jewish Voice for Peace, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "On 18 April, in Dublin, Ireland Palestinian Solidarity Campaign will present lawyer Aouda Zbidat to mark the Palestinian Prisoners Day 2016. Her talk will be a first-hand account of the key human rights violations facing Palestinian political prisoners in the OPT." (NGO Action News, UNISPAL (a UN) website) Editor's note: The words "Palestinian Prisoners Day 2016" on the UNISPAL website is a direct link to the following: (Excerpt from "NGO Action News, April 8, 2016," UNISPAL, Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Economic boycott was proven effective in South Africa. When the apartheid regime's business community approached the country's leadership saying that the prevailing circumstances could not continue, the die was cast...[T]he tone was set by the business community...Israel's economy will not withstand a boycott." 75 (Excerpt from "Israeli columnist calls for Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions," Americans United for Palestinian Human Rights, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 28, 2016) "The following aims and objectives are being pursued...(d) Mobilising international condemnation for Israel's apartheid policies to be manifested through the boycott of Israel." (Excerpt from "About Us: Aims & Objectives," Friends of Al-Aqsa, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Individual consumers can show their opposition to Israel's Apartheid policies against the Palestinian people and violations of international law by participating in a consumer boycott of Israeli goods and services." (Excerpt from "Boycott Israeli Goods," Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "BDS Update: April-July 2008," BADIL Resource Center for Palestinian Residency and Refugee Rights, Accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ 76 "On behalf of the National Lawyers Guild, we write in support of the lawsuit filed on November 29, 2011, against the Minnesota State Board of Investment (SBI) which seeks a judgment directing the SBI to divest from Israel Bonds." (Excerpt from "NLG Urges Minnesota to Divest from Israel Bonds," National Lawyers Guild, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) _______________________________________________ (Excerpt from "IPSC ­ Boycott Israeli Potatoes Picket, Rathmines," Ireland Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 26, 2016) _______________________________________________ "You can join the growing BDS movement by supporting a BDS campaign. Here are two options that AFSC works with: The We Divest Campaign asks investment giant TIAA-CREF to divest from companies that support Israel's occupation or violations of international law." (Excerpt from "Join a BDS campaign," American Friends Service Committee, Quakers are represented through the "Friends World Committee for Consultation (FWCC accredited with Special Consultative Status by ECOSOC and accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 77 "[T]he US Campaign for the Academic and Cultural Boycott of Israel USACBI congratulates the American Studies Association (ASA) for its unprecedented vote endorsing the Palestinian call for an academic boycott of Israeli universities...This act of solidarity with Palestinians constitutes a historic breakthrough among US-based academics. It signals an increased tendency to challenge the normalization of Israeli exceptionalism and the old norms of censorship and self-censorship, which have inhibited open criticism of Israel's oppression of Palestinians." (Excerpt from "A Statement on the ASA vote to endorse the academic boycott of Israeli Universities," Free Palestine Movement, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "Send a message to your MEP to ask the EU representative at the Kimberley Process meeting in Washington on June 4th to call for a ban on Israeli diamonds that fund war crimes...It is important that we voice our concerns about the trade in diamonds from Israel that fund war crimes and crimes against humanity...Diamonds exported from Israel are therefore helping to fund gross human rights violations in Palestine as well as Israel's clandestine nuclear weapons programme..." (Excerpt from "Israeli Blood Diamonds ­ Please contact your MEPs re: KP meeting in Washington," Ireland-Palestine Solidarity Campaign, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) "The US Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation will be holding its Annual National Organizers Conference in San Diego, CA, on 19-21 September 2014.... A programme has been posted online." (NGO Action News, UNISPAL (a UN) website) Editor's note: The word "programme" on the UNISPAL website is a direct link to the following: "Carrying Out Effective BDS Actions: Andrew Kadi, Adalah-NY: The New York Campaign for the Boycott of Israel Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions campaigns are not just about winning or losing - but also about the process that shifts the conversation to complicity in specific rights abuses and Israel's system of occupation and apartheid on the ground. What are the elements of an effective campaign (research, successful partnerships, publicity/media)? How can you carry out effective BDS actions in your community? How do you mobilize your supporters and break out to those beyond the choir? These and other questions will be addressed. ... Exposing the 1% & State of Israel's Agenda to Silence Criticism of Israel & Promote Anti-Muslim and Anti-Arab Racism:... Sara Kershnar, International Jewish Anti-Zionist Network... This workshop will provide an overview of the nationally coordinated and well-resourced attempt by pro-Israel supporters and the State of Israel to censor and manage dissent against Israel...The panel will conclude with a discussion of the implications of the organizations and donors behind the backlash network for broadening our BDS campaigns and organizing for the liberation of Palestine..." (Excerpt from "NGO Action News, August 15, 2014," U.S. Campaign to End the Israeli Occupation, Accredited by CEIRPP, last accessed on August 25, 2016) 78