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1,200 UNRWA Staff – Not Just 12 – Have Links to Hamas or Islamic Jihad

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1,200 UNRWA Staff – Not Just 12 – Have Links to Hamas or Islamic Jihad

Around 10% of UNRWA’s 12,000 employees in Gaza have links to Hamas or Palestinian Islamic Jihad, and 49% have close relatives who belong to the Islamist militant groups – both designated as terrorist organizations by the U.S. – according to Israeli intelligence estimates shared with the U.S., Carrie Keller-Lynn reports for the Wall Streets Journal.

Of the 12 employees listed in an intelligence dossier, two helped kidnap Israelis, two others were tracked to sites where scores of Israeli civilians were shot and killed, and others coordinated logistics for the assault, including procuring weapons.

UNRWA “as a whole is a haven for Hamas’ radical ideology,” said a senior Israeli government official. The report said 23% of UNRWA’s male employees had ties to Hamas, a higher percentage than the average of 15% for adult males in Gaza, indicating a higher politicization of the agency than the population at large.

Since Oct. 7, Hamas has stolen more than $1 million worth of UNRWA supplies, including fuel and trucks, according to the intelligence report. Hamas operatives are deeply enmeshed within the UNRWA aid-delivery enterprise and coordinate transfers for the organization.

Source: {Matzav.com}

There’s a Wave of New Bills to Define Antisemitism. In These 3 States, They Could Become Law

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There’s a Wave of New Bills to Define Antisemitism. In These 3 States, They Could Become Law

(AP) – Lawmakers in more than a half-dozen U.S. states are pushing laws to define antisemitism, triggering debates about free speech and bringing complicated world politics into statehouses.

Supporters say it’s increasingly important to add a definition that lays out how to determine whether some criticism of Israel also amounts to hatred of Jewish people. In so doing, lawmakers cited the Oct. 7 attacks in which Hamas killed some 1,200 people, mostly civilians, and took about 250 hostages back to Gaza, which sparked a war that has killed more than 26,000 Palestinians.

“For anybody that didn’t think that anti-Zionism could cross into antisemitism, the rest of the world could see that it had,” said Democratic Rep. Esther Panitch, the only Jewish member of Georgia’s Legislature and one of the sponsors of a bill that the state Legislature passed last week. Republican Gov. Brian Kemp is expected to sign.

Defined in 2016 by the the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance, antisemitism is “a certain perception of Jews, which may be expressed as hatred toward Jews. Rhetorical and physical manifestations of antisemitism are directed toward Jewish or non-Jewish individuals and/or their property, toward Jewish community institutions and religious facilities.”

But Kenneth Stern, the author of IHRA’s definition, said using such language in law is problematic.

“There’s an increasingly large number of young Jews for whom their Judaism leads to an antizionist position,” said Stern, director of the Bard Center for the Study of Hate. “I don’t want the state to decide that issue.”

Over the past three months, there has been a rise in protests around the country calling for a cease-fire in Gaza and the release of Israeli hostages. A coalition of organizations, including Jewish Voice for Peace and CAIR, issued a joint statement saying that the Georgia bill “falsely equates critiques of Israel and Zionism with discrimination against Jewish people.”

Measures using the same definition of antisemitism — but in anti-discrimination laws — have advanced in legislative chambers in Indiana and South Dakota. A report from the Anti-Defamation League last year found major increases in antisemitic incidents in Georgia and Indiana, but not in South Dakota, where fewer than 10 a year were recently reported.

Other legislation with the definition is pending in at least five other states this year.

Bill supporters say that more than 30 states have adopted the definition in some way over the years. Before now, the legal definitions — including in New York, the state with the largest Jewish population — came primarily through resolutions or executive orders rather than forceful laws.

In other parts of the country, Iowa incorporated the definition into law in 2022 and Virginia did the same last year, among others.

Lawmakers say their bills are in response to the Oct. 7 attacks, though before that, the problem of antisemitism has been on the rise in the U.S. and globally. Since the Israel-Hamas war erupted, several states have passed resolutions condemning Hamas and voicing support for Israel.

Thousands of entities around the world, including the U.S. State Department, major companies and colleges, have officially recognized the definition, with groups including the American Jewish Committee supporting it.

However the U.S. Congress and American Bar Association have declined to do so. Among those urging lawmakers to vote no are chapters of the ACLU.

“There is fundamental First Amendment harm whenever the state tries to silence pure speech on the basis of its viewpoint,” said said Brian Hauss, an ACLU lawyer.

Backers of the laws emphasize that they’re not trying to ban speech but rather decipher between actions that amount to discrimination or hate crimes, which carry different degrees of severity.

“This bill is entirely about conduct — adverse or unequal treatment that’s prohibited in state law,” said South Dakota state Rep. Fred Deutsch, a Republican whose father was a Holocaust survivor. “This bill doesn’t limit a person or organization’s freedom of speech or expression.” This week the chamber passed a measure by a 53-14 vote.

Lara Freidman, president of Foundation for Middle East Peace, said the laws could elevate charges, such as those against a protester for property destruction to the level of a hate crime if the perpetrator is seen with a Palestinian flag.

Georgia State Rep. Ruwa Romman, a Democrat of Palestinian descent, said that the definition, when adopted by colleges, has stifled students’ right to free speech.

“When they attempted to host a Palestinian poet or Palestinian culture night, the administration has preemptively canceled the events for fears of being antisemitic,” she said.

Some protesters gathered in the capitol in Indiana this month before the House unanimously advanced a bill incorporating the definition there.

“I don’t need to feel like as a student I’m going to be either censored or attacked or harassed,” said Yaqoub Saadeh, president of the Middle Eastern Student Association at Indiana University – Purdue University Indianapolis.

How colleges are acting to prevent or stop antisemitism on campus has become a hot-button issue across the country. Last year, fallout from campus presidents’ testimony before Congress led to the resignation of presidents at Harvard and the University of Pennsylvania.

Source: VosIzNeias

WSJ: Recovered Plane Door Backs Up Chilling Theory About Why It Blew Off

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WSJ: Recovered Plane Door Backs Up Chilling Theory About Why It Blew Off

Evidence from the door that blew off an Alaska Airlines plane is bolstering a theory that the emergency occurred because bolts required to secure the door were missing when the aircraft left Boeing’s factory, according to The Wall Street Journal. The so-called door plug on the 737 Max 9 aircraft blew out at around 16,000 feet during the flight on Jan. 5 and was later discovered in a teacher’s backyard.

Now Boeing and other industry officials “increasingly believe” that the aircraft manufacturer’s workers did not put bolts back in place when they reinstalled the door after removing it or opening it during the production, sources told the Journal. The conclusion is partly based on an apparent lack of markings on the door that would indicate the bolts were in place at the time it blew off, according to the report. Read more at The Wall Street Journal.

Source: Matzav/Wall Street Journal

Washington Rabbi Assaulted by Lyft Driver Who Complained About His ‘Energy

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Washington Rabbi Assaulted by Lyft Driver Who Complained About His ‘Energy

A Washington, D.C. rabbi was thrown out of a Lyft vehicle and assaulted by a driver who said he didn’t like his “energy.”

Rabbi Menachem Shemtov had ordered the Lyft to his Georgetown home after Shacharis Sunday morning at the shul of his father, Rabbi Levi Shemtov, in the Kalorama neighborhood.

Rabbi Menachem is director of Chabad Georgetown and chaplain at the Pentagon; Rabbi Levi is a famous Chabad shliach in Washington, and a ubiquitous presence at events at the White House and on Capitol Hill.

Menachem told Hamodia that as soon as he got into the car, he asked the driver, “Can you please lower the music?”

“He said something about me ordering a quiet Lyft next time, and I said, ‘ok,’” Rabbi Menachem says.

But less than a minute later, the driver told him to get out of the car.

“I asked what I did, and he said, ‘The energy of people like you is throwing me off, I didn’t like it from the moment you got into the car. I’m not feeling comfortable with your energy. Get out of the car.’”

Menachem exited the car, but the driver was not satisfied.

He yelled “Why’d you slam my door?” several times, and then he walked up to Menachem.

“I told him to get away from me. He punched me in the face and knocked my yarmulke knocked off. I told him to get away and ran to his car to take a picture of his license plate. He attempted to slam the door into me, and hit me with hands and keys. He hit me ear my eye; I’m lucky it wasn’t an inch higher.”

As he was beating Menachem, the driver also called him “weird.”

Video from the scene taken by a bystander shows Menachem yelling, “What is wrong with you?” and the driver slapping him. Another video, taken by Menachem, shows Menachem saying, “Don’t touch me! Touch me and you’ll get arrested,” and the driver punching him.

Menachem sustained cuts and bruises to his face and head, and suffered from dizziness.

He told Hamodia on Monday, “I’m feeling better, though it still hurts. I am lucky I wasn’t hit in places more severe. Baruch Hashem I walked away without anything too serious.”

Metropolitan Police say this is not a suspected hate crime, but Menachem says he has no doubt that when his assailant said doesn’t like “the energy of people like you,” he was “referring to my Jewish identity.”

The driver fled the scene before police arrived.

Menachem says that while the vehicle and its license plate matched that listed in the Lyft description — a red Toyota sedan with Maryland plate 3FR1602 — his driver was not the same one as that in the Lyft photo, and “Lyft has been totally unhelpful and unresponsive so far in helping the police to track down the driver.”

Late Monday morning, Lyft said in a statement to Hamodia, “Lyft unequivocally condemns this behavior. Upon learning of this incident, we deactivated the driver and we’ve been in touch with the rider. We encourage riders and drivers to report harassment, discrimination, or safety concerns in the Lyft app.” Lyft also says it stands ready to assist law enforcement with any investigation.

Photos and videos courtesy of Rabbi Menachem Shemtov

Source: Hamodia

Hamas Command Center Found Under Gaza Cemetery That Israel Was Accused of Desecrating

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Hamas Command Center Found Under Gaza Cemetery That Israel Was Accused of Desecrating
By Pesach Benson • 29 January, 2024

 

Jerusalem, 29 January, 2024 (TPS) — Israeli soldiers discovered an underground tunnel running beneath a cemetery in Khan Yunis, the Israel Defense Forces announced on Monday.

The tunnel was located directly below the Bani Suheila cemetery by troops from the IDF’s 98th Division. Bani Suheila was one of several cemeteries the IDF was accused of desecrating in recent Western media reports.

“While investigating the tunnel, the forces came across explosives, sliding doors and blast-proof doors, and eliminated terrorists who were inside,” the IDF statement said.

“Inside the tunnel route, the forces located an office from which a Khan Yunis Brigade battalion commander managed the attack on October 7th, an operations room, a command and control center, and the living quarters of senior officials of the Hamas terrorist organization. The tunnel was also used by Hamas to command their attacks against IDF forces both above and below ground.”

The IDF said the shaft was one kilometer long and 20 meters below the cemetery, adding that it was part of a larger underground network.

Combat engineers destroyed the tunnel.

In mid-January, the IDF confirmed it was operating in cemeteries where intelligence indicated that the bodies of Israeli hostages may have been buried.

“The IDF conducts precise hostage rescue operations in the specific locations where information indicates that the bodies of hostages may be located,” the army said in a statement to NBC News at the time. “The hostage identification process, conducted at a secure and alternative location, ensures optimal professional conditions and respect for the deceased. Bodies determined not to be those of hostages are returned with dignity and respect.”

The military’s statement added, “If not for Hamas’ reprehensible decision to take Israeli men, women, children and babies hostages, the need for such searches for our hostages would not exist.”

Khan Yunis, Gaza’s second-largest city, is regarded as a personal stronghold of Hamas leader Yahya Sinwar, whose family lives there. Ground forces recently completed their encirclement of the city.

At least 1,200 people were killed in Hamas’s attacks on Israeli communities near the Gaza border on Oct. 7. The number of men, women, children and soldiers held captive in Gaza by Hamas is now believed to be 136.

Hamas cites ‘red cows’ to justify October 7th massacres of Israelis

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Hamas cites ‘red cows’ to justify October 7th massacres of Israelis

The terrorist group cited importation of red heifers to justify its invasion of Israel.

By World Israel News Staff

The Hamas invasion of Israel on October 7th, and the subsequent massacres of Israelis, were prompted in part by the importation of “red cows” into Israeli, a senior Hamas spokesman said last week.

Abu Obeida, the nom de guerre of Hamas’ chief spokesman, said during a televised statement last week marking the 100th day since the October 7th invasion that Hamas launched the attacks in response to Israeli “aggression” against “our path and Al Aqsa” – a reference to the mosque on the Temple Mount – as well as Israel’s “bringing of red cows.”

“We look back 100 days to remember the educated, the complicit, and the incapacitated among the world powers governed by the law of the jungle,” Abu Obeida said, “reminding them of an aggression that reached its peak against our path (Al-Quds) and Al-Aqsa, with the start of its actual temporal and spatial division, and the bringing of red cows as an application of a detestable religious myth designed for aggression against the feelings of an entire nation in the heart of its Arab identity, and the path of its prophet (the Night Journey) and Ascension to heaven.”

While Hamas and other Islamist terrorist groups have regularly cited alleged “aggression” against the Al Aqsa Mosque to justify their attacks on Israelis as well as Jewish targets abroad, Abu Obeida appeared to also target efforts by religious Jewish groups to reestablish the Temple in Jerusalem.

In Jewish law, the ashes of a burnt red heifer are mixed with water to purify those working in the Temple and pilgrims visiting the holy site.

To be used in the ritual, a red heifer must be entirely red, with no blemishes or even two non-red adjacent hairs, making such creatures quite rare.

The Temple Institute, based in the Old City of Jerusalem, found five such heifers in Texas in 2022, and imported them to Israel, with the goal of grooming them for potential use in the purification ritual, a first-step towards the group’s goal of rebuilding the Temple on the Temple Mount.

Source: World Israel News

Italy’s Leader Denounces Antisemitism; Pro-palestinian Rally Is Moved From Holocaust Remembrance Day

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Italy’s Leader Denounces Antisemitism; Pro-palestinian Rally Is Moved From Holocaust Remembrance Day

ROME (AP) — Italy’s president on Friday denounced rising antisemitism and delivered a powerful speech in support of the Jewish people as he commemorated a Holocaust Remembrance Day overshadowed by Israel’s military campaign in Gaza and a rise in anti-Israel acts here.

Also Friday, Rome’s police chief ordered pro-Palestinian activists to postpone a rally in the capital that had been scheduled for Saturday, the actual day of Holocaust Remembrance. Israel’s Jewish community has complained that such protests have become occasions for the memory of the Holocaust to be co-opted by anti-Israel forces and used against Jews.

In a ceremony at the Quirinale Palace attended by the premier and leaders of Italy’s Jewish community, President Sergio Mattarella called the Holocaust “the most abominable of crimes” and recalled the complicity of Italians under Fascism in the deportation of Jews.

He said the Oct. 7 attacks by Hamas against Israel were “a gruesome replica of the horrors of the Shoah.”

But Mattarella also expressed anguish for the mounting Palestinian death toll in Gaza as a result of Israel’s military campaign and called for fundamental human rights to be respected everywhere.

“Those who have suffered the vile attempt to erase their own people from the land know that one cannot deny another people the right to a state,” Mattarella said.

Antisemitic episodes in Italy hit an unprecedented high last year, with 216 incidents reported in the last three months of 2023 following the Oct. 7 attack, compared to 241 in all of the previous year, the Antisemitism Observatory reported. Overall, 454 incidents of antisemitism were reported last year, the biggest-ever increase.

“The dead of Auschwitz, scattered in the wind, continually warn us: Man’s path proceeds along rough and risky roads,” Mattarella said. “This is also manifested by the return, in the world, of dangerous instances of antisemitism: of prejudice that traces back to ancient anti-Jewish stereotypes, reinforced by social media without control or modesty.”

Mattarella also strongly condemned the Nazi-Fascist regimes that perpetrated the Holocaust. Sitting in the audience was Premier Giorgia Meloni, whose Brothers of Italy party has neo-fascist roots but who has strongly backed Israel and supported Italy’s Jewish community.

Mattarella said it must never be forgotten that Italy under Fascism adopted “despicable racist laws” which barred Jews from schools and the workplace. He called the laws “the opening chapter of the terrible book of extermination.”

Referring to Benito Mussolini’s final government in the Nazi puppet state in Salò, northern Italy, he added that “members of the Republic of Salò actively collaborated in the capture, deportation and even massacres of Jews.”

Significantly, he quoted Primo Levi, the Italian-born Auschwitz survivor whose memoir “If This is a Man” remains a standard work of Holocaust literature. Just this week, Italy’s Jewish community denounced that pro-Palestinian protesters had cited Levi in a flyer promoting Saturday’s planned protest, but in reference to Gaza, not the Holocaust.

It was one of several instances of pro-Palestinian advocates using the memory of the Holocaust against Israel and Jews. On Friday, nearly 50 small bronze plaques appeared on the sidewalk in front of the offices of the U.N. refugee agency in Rome with the names of Palestinians killed in Gaza. They were identical to the bronze memorial plaques affixed to cobblestones around Rome in front of the homes of Jews who were deported during the Holocaust.

Source: VosIzNeias

New York Times Airs a Grievance Against the Pesach Seder

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New York Times Airs a Grievance Against the Pesach Seder

By Ira Stoll

Of all the many strange and egregious things the New York Times has done since October 7, 2023—rehiring an openly Hitler-praising Gaza stringer, misquoting Israel’s defense minister and prime minister in a way that falsely portrayed their intentions, falsely claiming the war is the deadliest in 40 years, advising the president of the United States to “lose it” with Prime Minister Netanyahu—one of the oddest of all is attacking the Pesach Seder.

A Times magazine article falsely claiming the old Black-Jewish alliance for Civil Rights has transformed into one against Israel includes about 1,400 words about a single far-left activist named Nicole Carty. It included this paragraph:

“I’ve been to a lot of Pesach celebrations,” she added, “and it’s so weird that the story is only of Jewish subjugation, even though subjugation is still so present for other people.” She went on: “Black people still haven’t had their histories honored. We are still gaslit about the impact of slavery and the continued impacts of white supremacy.”

The passage was widely mocked on social media. “The author complains that Pesach is too Jewish centric!” one commenter marveled.

Sure, there’s a distinction, as there often is, between the New York Times endorsing this attack on the particularism of Pesach and merely reporting on it as newsworthy. The overall framing by the Times, though, is not as an example of black antisemitism or individual silliness, but as a description of a kind of rational and inexorable demographic and historical response to Israeli actions. The Times is perfectly capable, in other contexts, of investigating extremist ideologies while carefully signaling to readers that those ideologies are extreme or not supported by evidence. Not so here.

Carty’s claim is so inaccurate in so many ways that it’s hard to know where to begin. One place might simply be with the characterization of the Pesach seder. To begin with, Pesach is not the story “only of Jewish subjugation,” it is the story of liberation, of freedom, of God’s bringing the Jewish people out of Egypt to the promised land. Many modern Pesach seders do universalize the story some by incorporating references to other liberation stories. In fact, at least one Pesach haggadah that is widely used by American Jews, A Different Night, includes the African-American spiritual “Let My People Go,” a discussion of “Black Moses” Harriet Tubman, a conductor on the Underground Railroad, and the Civil Rights anthem “We Shall Overcome.” Maybe Carty’s been going to Pesach with the wrong crowd.

Nor is it accurate that Black people “haven’t had their histories honored.” The United States has two federal holidays, Martin Luther King Day and Juneteenth, honoring Black history. In contrast, there are zero federal holidays honoring Jewish history. Maybe you can make a case for Saturday’s inclusion as part of the weekend, but that’s more Jewish religion or civilization than history.

The inaccuracy extends not only to the specific claims about Pesach but to the entire premise of the Times article, which is that the “Black-Jewish alliance within the civil rights movement” frayed and has now been replaced: “a new bond between Black and Jewish activists has emerged, catalyzed, in part, by the confluence of civil rights protests and attention to the Palestinian plight.”

That’s false, too. First, the “Black-Jewish alliance within the civil rights movement,” in its best days, while significant, powerful, and praiseworthy, was never universal. There were some Jews in both the North and the South who were reluctant to push for integration, especially if it involved their own neighborhood or schools. And there were some Blacks who were antisemites. The Times article misses that nuance, instead establishing a straw man.

Second, there’s a lot of black-Jewish cooperation happening—largely unreported by the New York Times—in defending Israel and American Jews after the October 7 Hamas terrorist attack. Democratic congressman Hakeem Jeffries spoke strongly in support of Israel and against Jew-hate at the pro-Israel rally in Washington DC on November 14. So did Van Jones. Senator Tim Scott of South Carolina has been a stalwart, as has the lieutenant governor of Virginia, Winsome Earle-Sears. The Yeshiva University, University of Notre Dame, and Brandeis “We Stand Together With Israel Against Hamas” statement was also signed by the United Negro College Fund and many historically Black colleges and universities.

Finally, plenty of young Jews are pro-Israel. A lot of them were at that November 14 rally in Washington. The Times prefers to focus on the young Jews who abhor Israel or who are activists for Palestinian causes, but that tells much more about the Times and its readership than it does about the reality of the American Jewish community.

To sum up: what’s really happening, big picture, is that lots of blacks and Jews, including young ones, are supporting Israel against Hamas. The Times chooses to ignore that news and focus instead on that there are some blacks and Jews who don’t like Israel and have minor differences among each other.

The online version of the Times article now carries a single small correction: “A correction was made on Jan. 23, 2024. An earlier version of this article misstated the number of people killed in Gaza as of mid-October. It was around 3,500, not many thousands.” If the Times had any integrity, it would correct the entire story: “This entire article was based on a false premise generalized wildly from a few unrepresentative anecdotes.”

Ira Stoll was managing editor of The Forward and North American editor of The Jerusalem Post. 

(c) The Algemeiner Journal

Source: Matzav

Top U.N. Court Stops Short of Ordering Ceasefire in Gaza and Demands Israel Contain Deaths

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Top U.N. Court Stops Short of Ordering Ceasefire in Gaza and Demands Israel Contain Deaths

The United Nations’ top court stopped short Friday of ordering a ceasefire in Gaza in a genocide case but demanded that Israel try to contain death and damage in its military operation.

South Africa brought the case and had asked the court to order Israel to halt its operation.

In the highly anticipated decision made by a panel of 17 judges, the International Court of Justice decided not to throw out the case — and ordered six so-called provisional measures to protect Palestinians in Gaza.

“The court is acutely aware of the extent of the human tragedy that is unfolding in the region and is deeply concerned about the continuing loss of life and human suffering,” Joan E. Donoghue, the court’s president, said.

Friday’s decision is only an interim one; it could take years for the full case brought by South Africa to be considered. Israel rejects the genocide accusation and had asked the court to throw the charges out.

While the case winds its way through the court, South Africa has asked the judges “as a matter of extreme urgency” to impose provisional measures.

Top of the South African list was a request for the court to order Israel to “immediately suspend its military operations in and against Gaza.” But the court declined to do that.

South Africa also asked for Israel to take “reasonable measures” to prevent genocide and allow access for desperately needed aid.

The court ruled that Israel must try to limit death and damage.

In a statement Thursday, Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Mohammed Shtayyeh said he hoped the decision would “include immediate action to stop the aggression and genocide against our people in the Gaza Strip … and a rapid flow of relief aid to save the hungry, wounded and sick from the threat of slow death that threatens them.”

On Thursday, Israeli government spokesperson Eylon Levy had said that Israel expected the court to toss out the “spurious and specious charges.”

Israel often boycotts international tribunals and U.N. investigations, saying they are unfair and biased. But this time, it took the rare step of sending a high-level legal team — a sign of how seriously it regards the case and likely the fear that any court order to halt operations would be a major blow to the country’s international standing.

An Israeli official said that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu huddled with top legal, diplomatic and security officials on Thursday in anticipation of the ruling. He said Israel is confident in its case but discussed “all scenarios.” The official spoke on condition of anonymity because he was discussing confidential meetings.

In a statement Friday following the ruling, Netanyahu rejected the genocide claims as “outrageous” and vowed to press ahead with the war.

“Israel’s commitment to international law is unwavering. Equally unwavering is our sacred commitment to continue to defend our country and defend our people,” Netanyahu said. “Like every country, Israel has an inherent right to defend itself. The vile attempt to deny Israel this fundamental right is blatant discrimination against the Jewish state, and it was justly rejected. The charge of genocide leveled against Israel is not only false, it’s outrageous, and decent people everywhere should reject it.”

“Our war is against Hamas terrorists, not against Palestinian civilians,” the statement continued. “We will continue to facilitate humanitarian assistance, and to do our utmost to keep civilians out of harm’s way, even as Hamas uses civilians as human shields. We will continue to do what is necessary to defend our country and defend our people.”

Itamar Ben Gvir, the right wing Israeli national security minister, was the first Israel official to comment after the court ended its reading.

“Hague shmague,” Ben Gvir wrote on X, reminiscent of former prime minister David Ben Gurion’s dismissal of the United Nations decades ago as “Um Shmum.”

Israel launched its massive air and ground assault on Gaza after Hamas terrorists stormed through Israeli communities on Oct. 7 killing some 1,200 people, mainly civilians and many in barbaric fashion, and abducting another 250.

The offensive in Gaza has decimated vast swaths of the territory and driven nearly 85% of its 2.3 million people from their homes.

More than 26,000 Palestinians have been killed, the Health Ministry in the Hamas-run enclave said on Friday. The ministry does not differentiate between combatants and civilians in its death toll, but has said about two-thirds of those killed were women and children.

The Israeli military says at least 9,000 of those killed in the nearly four-month conflict are Hamas terrorists.

U.N. officials have expressed fears that even more people could die from disease, with at least one-quarter of the population facing starvation.

Ahead of the ruling, Marieke de Hoon, an associate professor of international law at the University of Amsterdam, said she thought the court was unlikely to throw the case out since the legal bar South Africa has to clear at this early stage is lower than the one that would be applied for ruling on the merits of the accusation.

“The standard … is not, has there been genocide? But a lower standard,” she said. “Is it plausible that there could have been a risk of genocide that would invoke Israel’s responsibility to prevent genocide?”

But De Hoon also did not expect the world court to order an end to Israel’s military operation.

“I think that they will shy away from actually calling for a full ceasefire, because I think they will find that beyond their abilities right now,” she said in a telephone interview.

Provisional measures by the world court are legally binding, but it is not clear if Israel will comply with them.

How the U.S., Israel’s top ally, responds to any order will be key, since it wields veto power at the U.N. Security Council and thus could block measures there aimed at forcing Israel’s compliance.

The U.S. has said Israel has the right to defend itself, but has also spoken about the need for the country to protect civilians in Gaza and allow more aid in.

Withn reporting by wire services

Source: Hamodia

Zera Shimshon – Parshat Behalach (Video Learning)

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Zera Shimshon – Parshat Behalach (Video Learning)

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