Month: April 2025

SOUTH AFRICA’S CONDUCT IN COURT – SECRECY AND SHENANIGANS

ICJ finds serious procedural violations in South Africa’s submission against Israel that should be acting with integrity and transparency not procedural violations, hearsay ‘evidence’ and secrecy.

By Craig Snoyman

(*First appeared under different title in the SAJR)

Last week, the International Court of Justice (ICJ) delivered a curious decision – one that the South African legacy media has largely ignored. Instead of holding Israel to filing its answer to South Africa’s case by the original deadline of 28 July 2025, the court granted a massive extension, to 28 January 2026.

On the face of it, this does not appear to be significant. But looking beneath the surface, there are serious implications for South Africa.

Funding the initial application: Why don’t we know where the money came from?

After South Africa instituted its application against Israel, alleging that it was committing genocide, speculation swirled about who was funding the case. After a lengthy silence, the Minister of Finance, Enoch Godongwana, stated in Parliament in December 2024 that South Africa was allocating a further R95 million to pursue the costs of the memorial (the founding case) at the ICJ. What remains unstated, and which the legacy media no longer questions, is who financed the initial application for preventative measures, which is distinguishable from the memorial. Credible sources such as the Institute for the Study of Global Antisemitism and Policy suggested that this funding came from Iran, and possibly Qatar as well. While the Department of International Relations and Cooperation said that the government had paid for it, Godongwana was more circumspect, dealing only with the memorial. The problem with this is that two years down the line there are still no financial records showing that any South African ministry either paid for, or budgeted for, the initial application.

Colourful Charade. South African lawyer Adila Hassim (left), South Africa’s justice minister Ronald Lamola (centre) and ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela at the International Court of Justice on Thursday. (Photo: EPA-EFE/Remko de Waal)

Professor John Dugard, the de facto leader of the South African legal team, refused to give a straight answer, merely stating that:

 “…allegations of covert funding are politically charged but legally irrelevant. The ICJ assesses cases on merits, not on financial origins.”

The suspicion that the government is either concealing information from its voting public or misrepresenting the position remains.

While doubts persist about the government and the initial funding, there was never a question about the capability of the South African legal team. This was the “A Team” – South Africa’s best silks and highly qualified and experienced international jurists. But with last week’s ICJ order this, too, needs to be looked at more closely.

The memorial submission: A legal battle shrouded in secrecy

The first substantive step in the case to prove that Israel has violated the Genocide Convention was the submission of a memorial detailing the genocide allegations. This memorial came at the hefty price of tens of millions of rand, and a substantial amount of it was used for investigation and legal fees. South Africa’s memorial amounted to a monumental 750 pages, accompanied by more than 4 000 pages of exhibits and annexes, setting out its evidence against Israel, including accusations of forced displacement, starvation, and mass killing of Palestinians in Gaza.

However, in keeping with ICJ protocol, memorials are not made public, and so South Africa’s memorial content remains locked away from public scrutiny. Israel was obligated to submit its counter-memorial (its defence) by 28 July 2025, approximately six months after the filing of the memorial. That deadline has now taken a dramatic turn.

A stunning ICJ ruling: SA exposed for serious procedural violations

The ICJ, after considering both South Africa’s and Israel’s submissions, ordered that Israel need only file its counter-memorial next year. This postponement to allow Israel to file its response (adding 9 months to the time given to respond), suggests that the ICJ found serious procedural violations in South Africa’s submission.

Vague at The Hague. Distracting attention away from its own abysmal record, (South Africa’s murder rate of 45 per 100,000 (2023/24) is the second highest for countries that publish crime data), it pursues Israel on unsubstantiated charges at The Hague. Seen here is a rather bored South African ambassador to the Netherlands Vusimuzi Madonsela checking his phone during a hearing at the ICJ in The Hague, Netherlands, January 12, 2024. (Patrick Post/AP)

Reliable leaks from “Western diplomats” have elaborated on the court’s order concerning the averment that “the counter-memorial had been significantly impeded because of a range of evidentiary issues that had arisen in connection with the memorial of the Republic of South Africa and in light of which the scope of the case remained unclear”. These leaks have now also been independently verified. In layman’s terms, South Africa is playing evidential hide-and-seek with Israel’s legal team. The diplomatic sources, and as verified by Israeli Professor Eugene Kontorovich and former Israeli Ambassador and an expert in international law, Alan Baker, state that South Africa submitted crucial evidence but concealed it from Israel, and it has submitted numerous unsubstantiated hearsay testimonies stemming from Hamas sources. South Africa’s response implicitly acknowledged that there was fire below the smoke responding that:

 “…the evidentiary issues raised concerned a limited number of documents and could in no way prejudice the respondent in the preparation of its case”.

For the “A Team” to pursue justice dishonestly would betray the very principle of justice itself and South Africa’s image as this benevolent pursuer of human rights. South Africa should be acting with integrity, transparency, and rigorous evidence – not through procedural violations, unreliable hearsay evidence, and secrecy. It should not be left to Israel to make sense of South Africa’s mess.

As any first-year law student would know, in these circumstances, this would be a violation of fundamental legal principles, coupled with an inability to prove that Israel has committed “genocide” as accepted by the Genocide Convention. My law professor once said my essays were neither quantitative nor qualitative. It seems the ICJ has viewed South Africa’s procedural irregularities in a similar vein. Its response has been to give South Africa a virtual harsh slap across the face.

Killing Kids. The massacre in Israel that began the hostilities is irrelevant to South Africa. This photo of children’s toys and personal items lying on the bloodstained floor of a child’s bedroom, following the murderous attack by Hamas gunmen in Kibbutz Beeri on October 7 would probably solicit a yawn from South Africa’s ‘illustrious’ legal team. (Photo: Reuters/Ronen Zvulun)

A fiasco at the ‘expense’ of South Africa

With a government refusing to clarify who financed the initial application, and the “A Team” seemingly committing basic legal errors, South Africa’s financial and legal missteps are costing the nation dearly. At a time when South Africa is feeling international political heat, legal egg on the face is not what is needed now. If the case for genocide lacks the legal foundation and it doesn’t have the evidence, then South Africa must stop throwing millions into a losing battle. Justice demands more than passion. It demands precision. And right now, South Africa may not be offering either.



About the writer:

Craig Snoyman is a practising advocate in South Africa.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 28 April 2025

Unveiling the contours and contrasts of an ever-changing Middle East landscape Reliable reportage and insightful commentary on the Middle East by seasoned journalists from the region and beyond.

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THE ISRAEL BRIEF- 21-24 April 2025
(Click on the blue title)



Lay of the Land’s  ‘Pick of the Week’

HOSTAGE TO HERO

Eli Sharabi

When released in February, hostage Eli Sharabi looked as if had just been liberated from Bergen Belsen – not Gaza! Guant, emaciated and unsteady on his feet, his appearance shocked a complacent Jewish world to reevaluate the familiar slogan  “Never Again”. Two months later, at the annual ‘March of the Living’, it was a defiant Eli Sharabi who stood on Yom HaShoah with the President of the State of Israel, Isaac Herzog, outside the gates of Auschwitz. Eli, whose wife and daughters were murdered on October 7,  said: “I endured horrors in captivity – but I chose life” (Photo: Alexi J. Rosenfeld/Getty Images)




Articles

Please note there is a facility to comment beneath each article should you wish to express an opinion on the subject addressed.

(1)

THE UN’S LATEST BLOOD LIBEL

Obsessively anti-Israel, UNHRC absurdly accuses Israel of fresh “genocide” by obstructing Palestinian births.
By Rolene Marks

UN’scrupulous. While the UNHRC has since the atrocities of 7 October failed to condemn the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust, it accuses Israel in a malicious report of carrying out “genocidal acts” against Palestinian women by systematically destroying their healthcare facilities and using sexual violence as a war strategy.

THE UN’S LATEST BLOOD LIBEL
(Click on the blue title)



(2)

‘PICK n PAY’ PANICS

A modest Passover products display at a South African Pick n Pay leads to antisemitic rage and the Johannesburg supermarket’s surrender.
By Tim Flack

Bitterness follows Betrayal. “This wasn’t about foreign policy or the Gaza war… It was about matzah and kosher grape juice,”  asserts the writer about a Johannesburg upermarket that turned into a battlefield. Jewish consumers felt betrayed when management removed the Magen David symbols from the Passover products section at Pick n Pay, Norwood.

‘PICK n PAY’ PANICS
(Click on the blue title)



(3)

GLOBALISATION RAVAGED BRITAIN’S JEWISH COMMUNITY

Uncertain how Trump’s tariffs might shake up the world in the future, but  sure know what globalisation did to my UK city  and its Jewish community.
By TV and radio presenter Jonny Gould

Unsettling Future. Many British towns and cities that once boasted well-established Jewish populations have seen it melt away with a migration to larger commercial centres, most notably London. “Why did the nation’s capital become such a honeypot for smaller communities?” is the question the writer explores as he laments the “untold reality of the demise” of Jewish communities across the UK.

GLOBALISATION RAVAGED BRITAIN’S JEWISH COMMUNITY
(Click on the blue title)


LOTL Cofounders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

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While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

‘PICK n PAY’ PANICS

A modest Passover products display at a South African Pick n Pay leads to antisemitic rage and the Johannesburg supermarket’s surrender.

By Tim Flack

Let’s not sugar-coat this.

I’m not Jewish. Never claimed to be. But I’ll be damned if I stand by while open antisemitism gets paraded as activism in the middle of a grocery store. What happened at Pick n Pay Norwood on 11 April wasn’t protest. It was targeted harassment, and anyone with two brain cells to rub together knows it.

Propping up Jew-Hatred. When Pick n Pay took down its props indicating where the kosher-for-Pesach section was in the Norwood Mall before the festival, the Jewish community was shocked and angry, questioning how this could happen at a store with one of the biggest and most loyal kosher customer bases.

This wasn’t about foreign policy or the Gaza war. It wasn’t about challenging so-called Israeli aggression. It was about matzah and kosher grape juice. That’s it. A display of basic Passover products in the kosher section of a supermarket was turned into a battlefield by a group of attention-seekers who think yelling “genocide” into an iPhone makes them freedom fighters.

The kosher section featured traditional food items used during Passover, alongside symbols of Jewish identity, the colour blue, known as tekhelet, and the Star of David. That was enough to send the mob into a meltdown. Why? Because in their minds, even existing as a Jew is now a provocation.

Let’s set the record straight.

The Star of David is not a Zionist logo. It’s a Jewish symbol. Full stop. It predates the modern State of Israel by centuries. It’s etched into synagogues, stitched into prayer shawls, and engraved on gravestones around the world. Calling it controversial because it appeared next to matzah on a shelf is not political critique. Its antisemitism dressed up as moral outrage.

Uproar to Uprooting. Staging a protest inside the Norwood store on 11 April, the BDS Movement and its cohorts objected to the inclusion of what they called “Israeli imagery,” specifically a national flag and the Star of David, and demanded their removal resulting in the store removing the ‘offensive’ signs.

Pick n Pay stocks Halaal food (allowed under Islamic law) year-round. It runs specials during Ramadan. It marks Diwali – the Hindu ‘Festival of Lights’. It hangs tinsel and puts up Christmas trees in December. Nobody complains. Nobody stages a protest in the bakery aisle over hot cross buns. But when Jewish South Africans get a small, modest display for Passover, out come the hashtags and the rage. The double standard is blinding.

Norwood has a long-standing Jewish community. These products are local staples. It’s not some Zionist plot to destabilise South Africa. It’s people buying the food their families have eaten for millennia during one of the holiest times of the year.

And let’s not ignore the obvious. If this were any other religious group, the outrage would be instant. Imagine someone tearing down a Ramadan display and accusing Muslims of terrorism. They’d be charged with hate speech before they made it out the parking lot. But when it happens to Jews? It’s uploaded to Instagram with a filter and a “Free Palestine” slogan.

There is a clear line between political dissent and religious discrimination. That line was bulldozed at Pick n Pay Norwood. BDS and its affiliates don’t care about nuance, coexistence, or real solutions. They care about vilifying Jews under the false flag of human rights.

It’s time we called this what it is: an attack on Jewish life in South Africa.

What lies in ‘store’? The knee-jerk reaction of the Pick n Pay store taking down the Pesach décor apparently began when SA actor, writer, and radio and television personality, Eric Miyeni posted on social media that he would never shop at Pick n Pay again because of its Pesach display featuring Magen Davids and blue and white ribbons. Miyeni’s post went viral stirring an antisemitic rage against the “symbols of Judaism” but felt “vindicated” when the decorations were removed.

WHICH WAY PICK n PAY?

The South African Jewish Board of Deputies is right to demand an apology. Not because they want extra privileges, but because they want equal treatment. Jewish families should be able to shop in peace without being shouted at by strangers armed with smartphones and slogans.

Pick n Pay has a decision to make. Either it stands for all South Africans or it allows bigotry to masquerade as political activism. There is no middle ground here.

Apologise. Clarify your position. Reinforce that your stores are places of inclusion, not platforms for intimidation.

Because once you legitimise this kind of behaviour, it doesn’t stop with one community. Today it was the Jews. Tomorrow, it could be anyone.



About the writer:

This image has an empty alt attribute; its file name is image-32.png

Tim Flack is the CEO and Head of Comms and Public Relations and founder of Flack Partners PR, a boutique public relations firm in Cape Town, South Africa. Tim specialises in providing tailored communication strategies for businesses in the political, safety and security, and small business fields.






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)

THE ISRAEL BRIEF- 21-24 April 2025

21 April 2025 – Condolences from Israel on the passing of His Holiness, the Pope and more on The Israel Brief.



22 April 2025 – Hostage negotiations underway in Cairo and headlines on The Israel Brief.



23 April 2025 – Israel approaches Yom Hashoa and your headlines on The Israel Brief.



24 April 2025 – Israel observes Yom Hashoa and your mensches and morons of the week on The Israel Brief.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

GLOBALISATION RAVAGED BRITAIN’S JEWISH COMMUNITY

Uncertain how Trump’s tariffs might shake up the world in the future, but  sure know what globalisation did to my UK city  and its Jewish community.

By Jonny Gould

Credits: http://jonnygould.substack.com

It was never explained why Birmingham, Leeds, Liverpool and Glasgow’s Jewish populations declined so fast because as a community, we surfed the free-trade revolution in the name of self-improvement.

I reflect back to Jack Rosenthal’s Bar Mitzvah Boy, a BBC ‘Play for Today’ in 1976:

“At this moment, on their way, are a hundred and seventeen guests. Sitting on the train, in cars, queuing for buses – all on their way. At half past six, Victor, a hundred and seventeen people from Bournemouth, from Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow, from Birmingham, everywhere… are going to turn up at the Reuben Shulman Hall expecting a dinner dance. All dressed up. Your Uncle Zalman, my cousin Freda. Your brother we don’t talk about from Cardiff.

That dialogue by Maria Charles playing harassed mother Rita Green is a verbal time capsule of the age. Elliot, the bar mitzvah boy, had bolted from synagogue just before his call up to read his portion of the Torah. They found him in the playground soon after.

Bygone Era. Today a period piece, the BBC’s “Bar Mitzvah Boy” told the story of a young Jewish boy, Eliott Green in a lower-middle class family living in suburban North East London of the 1970s, and the apprehensions over his forthcoming Bar Mitzvah, while his family prepares for the ‘Big Occasion’.

Anyway.

I pick out those words from the television play because it really was like that. There were prosperous, longstanding Jewish communities spread right across the UK.

Because being British and Jewish was a distinct and robust identity, anchored as it was in the culture of the nation and unlike most of mainland Europe, unsullied by European persecution and destruction.

But these days the Anglo-Jewish community is increasingly polarised and relocated to one corner of the country. Three quarters of Britain’s Jews – numbering just over 300,000 according to the Institute for Jewish Policy Research – live in London and its suburbs.

As well as Jewish communities moving into the capital from other cities, a huge influx of young professionals from across the world were attracted by London’s preeminence as the leading financial centre post 9/11.

Sephardim left France for London at the start of the 21st century from the rise of Le Pen and Islamism, prompted by their parent’s North African stories of political uncertainty in the Arab countries they’d left a generation before.

The emergent cultural power of Israel has reduced Anglo-Jewish identity in favour of an international Israeli one and that’s sharpened even more since October 7th.

Yet from Wolverhampton to Westcliff, Bournemouth to Bristol, Merthyr Tydfil to Middlesbrough and Stoke-on-Trent to St Anne’s-on-Sea, British towns had their own synagogues with character and ambition.

Up to 40 years ago, the north boasted communities numbering five-figure populations in Manchester, Leeds and Glasgow. There were four-figure strongholds in Liverpool, Sheffield, Newcastle, Cardiff, Brighton and Hove and my city, Birmingham.

When Synagogues become Museums. The Manchester Jewish Museum was formally a synagogue designed by renowned Victorian architect Edward Salomons, who was inspired by the Portuguese and Spanish origins of the local Jewish community of the 1870s. Today it relates the history of Manchester’s Jewish community – today numbering 30,000 – which is the second largest in Britain; the first being in Greater London.

Household retail names were Jewish businesses in the regions like Marks and Spencer’s out of Leeds, Goldbergs of Glasgow, Burton’s Menswear of Chesterfield, Viner’s Cutlery from the Steel City, Sheffield, NEMS in Liverpool and Odeon Cinemas, founded by Jewish British entrepreneur Oscar Deutsch out of the “workshop of the world” -Birmingham. Plus, literally thousands of other self-starter businesses everywhere.

I’ll take this opportunity to pay tribute to our own “J. Gould, the smart man’s tailor”, at its height the family had dozens of shops across the Midlands. Clearly a commercial barrier to other big players, my grandfather and his brothers rejected a six-figure offer from Montague Burton to consolidate the menswear market in the early sixties.

Not to mention the emerging white-collar class of eminent professionals in medicine, law, accounting and banking, the children of immigrants and the first in their families to go to university.

The 1970’s was the last time being Jewish in the UK felt mainstream.

Who even remembers ‘12 Hours for Israel’,   an actual celebration of Anglo-Jewish life staged at Earls Court?

Back then, you could publicly enjoy being Jewish and Israeli without baying antisemitic wolves at the door.

It seemed the whole country converged on London to see exhibitors from El Al to Nefesh B’nefesh, youth groups and even a live stage show. There was Moshe Dayan, Israel’s foreign minister opening it and Eurovision celebrity, Esther Ofarim (born in Safed to a Syrian Jewish family), was the star attraction.

Entertaining Israelis. The year following the Six Day War, Israeli singer Esther Ofarim on a BBC Show in London in 1968.

I remember Larry Adler warbling his harmonica through some kind of Fiddler on the Roof tribute.

🎶“When things are not so good, when things are not so nice, I write a little letter to the rabbi for advice!”

Bar Mitzvah Boy heralded a host of stereotypical characters, played mostly in comedies, of East End tailors and the like.

Robin’s Nest, set in a restaurant in the London suburbs took a booking from a local Jewish family.

Richard O’Sullivan playing Robin, sourced salt beef for his customers in a frenzied panic of British tolerance. As if Shirley and Irving would take their family out for what they could have at home! What those diners demanded or the kitchen staff prepared for in terms of Kashrut wasn’t covered in the storyline.

“My boy”, “my life” and “oy vey” have been thrown at me as banter from older non-Jewish colleagues who mean no harm by it, but no one in my family spoke remotely like that being descended as I am from Viennese and Brummie (Birmingham) Jewish stock.

Where have all the Jews gone? The writer’s city of Birmingham in the 1930s of S Lesser Jeweller and Clothier –  a typical Jewish retail establishment.

Not to mention my colourful post-Holocaust surviving family who jetted in for my own barmitzvah from Vancouver, Chicago, Haifa, Sunderland and Nottingham.

And heading up to Liverpool for barmitzvahs and staying in kosher hotels was a near annual event.

After the service, everyone would go back to the family home down Queens Drive for a Shabbos lunch of chopped liver, lockshen and kneidlach soup, roast chicken and apple strudel.

Go back still further and there were synagogue communities in scores of far-flung British outposts, reflecting the long and continuous Jewish presence in Britain. Count in Llandudno, Worcester, Blackpool, Reading and Swansea among them. Burnley synagogue is now a Dial-a-Pizza.

Some of those communities survived into the 1970s and 80s.

I’m still a member in Eastbourne, which despite the sale of the synagogue building shortly after its post-Covid centenary, they still hold Shabbat and High Holiday services in rented rooms in town. The Exeter synagogue located in Synagogue Place in the old city built in 1763 by Dutch Sephardi traders, still exists to this day. In the 19th century, there was a marriage between two members of Walsall’s community. Walsall is a market town in the West Midlands 9 miles north-west of Birmingham. 

Shapiro’s Shop. The dawn of the Jewish community in Birmingham is believed to have been around 1730 with early Jewish settlers including peddlers using Birmingham as a base. The first known glass furnace was set up by Meyer Opperheim in or about 1760 on the road to Wolverhampton. Above is Mrs. Shapiro’s shop.
 

So why the demise of Anglo-Jewry beyond London? Why did the nation’s capital become such a honeypot for smaller communities?

The untold reality of the demise of every Jewish community in the UK but for one is economic.

It’s globalisation.

Globalisation affected every single one of us born in the sixties and beyond. Everyone. Our parents have been forced into change in their older age too.

Jews accepted the prevailing orthodoxy of globalisation imposed on us because it matched our longing for respectability and progress, to shift from peddlers and market traders to become doctors and lawyers.

Globalisation shut down industries for good and obliterated support businesses around them. It triggered mass Jewish migration, not just across the UK but right around the world too.

I discuss living through this revolution as a teenage Birmingham school leaver at the beginning of this article.

Most of us Jews emerged winners out of the total upheaval.

Some who lost out, assimilated into the non-Jewish working class of their towns, assimilated and intermarried. Yet many have consolidated into smaller-scale, well-organised Jewish life.

We’re unclear how Donald Trump’s protectionist tariffs might shake up the world in future, but I sure know what globalisation did to my city – and by extension my Jewish community.

It ravaged it.

So next time you’re soaked in the prevailing narrative of Trump’s “self-injury”, reflect on why you might agree with it.

Is it because you were born and brought up in prosperous London which completely rode the 80s recession – or were sheltered from it as part of your parent’s professional class or the financial comforts and social bubble you bounced around?

It’s a tough old world out there and I fear fewer of us are free of the consequences of the big economic and societal changes which are coming this time around. 




About the writer:

Jonny Gould is a television and radio presenter on Talk and host and producer of Jonny Gould’s Jewish State podcast.
At the end of 2018, he launched a podcast in response to the unchecked and sudden rise of UK antisemitism. In a short time, “Jonny Gould’s Jewish State” (on Apple, Spotify and elsewhere) has grown into both a snapshot and library of the changing temperature for one of the west’s oldest and continuous Jewish communities.
As a board member of the Israel Diaspora Trust, Jonny’s also regularly briefed off-the-record by influencers and decision-makers across the US, Israel and the UK.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

THE UN’S LATEST BLOOD LIBEL

Obsessively anti-Israel, UNHRC absurdly accuses Israel of fresh “genocide” by obstructing Palestinian births.

By Rolene Marks

I sometimes think that the United Nation exists just to demonize Israel. The UN never pass up an opportunity to indulge their inner Goebbels and engage in their favourite pastime – targeting and demonizing Israel. We have seen this in just about every major division from the General Assembly to the Human Rights Council.  The UN is rotten from the head of the fish – Secretary General Antonio Guterres to the people managing social media who can barely mention any crime committed against Israelis. The US Deputy Ambassador, Robert Wood, who recently retired after nearly 40 years in the Foreign Service, including most recently as deputy U.S. ambassador to the United Nations in the Biden administration, knows firsthand that Washington’s next envoy to the global body will have to swim upstream to curb Jew-hatred.

“One of the first things that the next permanent representative will need to focus on is ridding that building of antisemitism, because the entire building is hemorrhaging with it,” Wood told the Jewish News Syndicate in an interview.

No agency is more evident of that than the UN Human Rights Council. In June 2007, the UNHRC established Agenda Item VII, enshrining its discrimination against Israel by requiring the Jewish state be singled out at every meeting – the only country-specific permanent item on the Council’s agenda.

 In the wake of the atrocities of 7 October, the UNHRC have yet to condemn the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust. On 27 October 2023, the council passed a resolution:

“Calling for an immediate and sustained humanitarian truce leading to a cessation of hostilities, the General Assembly today demanded the unhindered provision of essential aid to civilians throughout the Gaza Strip, as the body continued its emergency session on the situation in the Middle East.  The Assembly also failed to unequivocally reject and condemn the terrorist attacks by Hamas that took place in Israel starting on 7 October.” (Source: press.un.org)

According to a press release from Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on 5 April 2024:

“The resolution adopted today, the UN condemns Israel for the war in Gaza but makes no mention of Hamas or its crimes on October 7th. The resolution equates the hostages/ with detainees suspected of terrorist activity. It also opposes Israel’s right to defend itself. Furthermore, the resolution provides legitimacy for Palestinian ‘resistance’ to the ‘occupation,’ calls for an arms embargo on Israel, and blatantly disregards the supply of weapons to Hamas by Iran and its allies.

Following the adoption of the resolution, Israel’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations and International Organizations in Geneva, Ambassador Meirav Eilon Shahar, left the hall in protest.”

A reminder that the United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Rights which clearly states “All human beings are born free and equal in dignity and rights. They are endowed with reason and conscience and should act towards one another in a spirit of brotherhood.”

Universal – except for the Jewish state. The UNHRC has also systematically ignored the crimes against humanity of sexual violence committed against Israeli women, girls and men on 7 October and thereafter in captivity. Despite taking several months to acknowledge these crimes, Pramila Patten, the Special Representative of the Secretary-General on Sexual Violence in Conflict, led an official visit to Israel from 29 January to 14 February to gather, analyse and verify reports of sexual violence related to the 7 October attack.

Seeing for Herself. “Things happened here that I have never seen before. The world outside cannot understand the magnitude of the event,” expressed UN Secretary-General’s Special Envoy for Sexual Violence in Conflict Zones, Pramila Patten (third left) visiting Kibbutz Be’eri and the location where the Nova party was held. She watched a 47-minute film documenting Hamas atrocities and engaged with witnesses and ZAKA members, expressing horror at what she saw and heard. (Photo: Yiffit Iliaguiav, MFA)
 

“What I witnessed in Israel were scenes of unspeakable violence perpetrated with shocking brutality,” Ms. Patten recalled. Detailing her methodology, she said that her team met with families of hostages and members of communities displaced from several kibbutzim.  It conducted confidential interviews with 34 individuals, including survivors and witnesses of the 7 October attacks, released hostages, first responders and health and service providers.  It visited four attack sites – as well as the morgue to which the bodies of victims were transferred – and reviewed over 5,000 photographic images and some 50 hours of footage of the attacks. “It was a catalogue of the most extreme and inhumane forms of killing, torture and other horrors,” including sexual violence, she stated.  The team also found convincing information that sexual violence had been committed against hostages.

Patten reported her conclusion to the UN Security Council that there were reasonable grounds to believe that conflict-related sexual violence  –  including rape and gang-rape  –  occurred across multiple locations in Israel and the Gaza periphery during the attacks on 7 October 2023.

These crimes, committed in the most depraved and sadistic manner have been roundly ignored and even justified by feminist organisations.  I highly recommend everyone reading this very difficult but meticulously researched report on the atrocities of 7 October led by respected historian, Lord Roberts: https://www.7octparliamentarycommission.co.uk/

The UNHRC’s persistent targeting of the world’s only Jewish state for opprobrium has resulted in both the US and Israel withdrawing from it.

Last month (March 2025),  in what can only be described as a modern-day blood libel, the UNHRC released their commission report accusing Israel of carrying out “genocidal acts” against Palestinians by systematically destroying women’s healthcare facilities during the conflict in Gaza, and used sexual violence as a war strategy.

See no Evil. The Geneva-based UNHRC is yet to condemn the October 7 massacre – the worst attack against Jews since the Holocaust.

Some of the ludicrous allegations include:

“Israeli authorities have destroyed in part the reproductive capacity of the Palestinians in Gaza as a group, including by imposing measures intended to prevent births, one of the categories of genocidal acts in the Rome Statute and the Genocide Convention,” said the U.N. Independent International Commission of Inquiry.

Those actions, in addition to a surge in maternity deaths due to restricted access to medical supplies, amounted to the crime against humanity of extermination, the commission said.

The report also accused Israel’s security forces of using forced public stripping and sexual assault as part of their standard operating procedures to punish Palestinians following the Hamas-led attacks on southern Israel in October 2023. Stripping prisoners is not an uncommon practice – especially when these terror organisations employ suicide bombing as a tactic.

Israel rejected the accusations. “The IDF (Israeli Defense Force) has concrete directives … and policies which unequivocally prohibit such misconduct”, the permanent mission to the UN in Geneva responded in a statement, adding that its review processes are in line with international standards.

Hamas spokesperson, Hazem Qassem told the AFP news agency that the report “shows that Israel has committed genocide in the Palestinian Authority territories since the October 7 attack.” He said, “it confirms what happened on the ground: the violation of humanitarian and legal principles.”

Israel’s Foreign Ministry condemned the report calling it a modern-day “blood libel.” In its statement, the ministry said, “This is one of the worst cases of blood libel the world has ever seen (and the world has seen many). It blames the victims for the crimes committed against them. Hamas is the organization that committed horrific sexual crimes against Israelis. This is indeed a sick document that only an antisemitic organization like the UN could have produced.”

Revolting Revelations. “It really feels like Hamas learned how to weaponise women’s bodies from ISIS in Iraq, from cases in Bosnia,” said Dr. Cochav Elkayam-Levy a legal expert at the Davis Institute of International Relations at Hebrew University. “It brings me chills just to know the details that they knew about what to do to women: cut their organs, mutilate their genitals, rape. It’s horrifying to know this.”

In a press release on Wednesday, 2 April 2025, Israeli President, Isaac Herzog, issued the following statement:

“Today’s UNHRC report and resolution represent the highest form of victim-blaming and the lowest form of moral clarity. In the harrowing words of Amit Soussana, a released hostage who endured sexual abuse at the hands of barbaric Hamas terrorists, and who just this week was honoured and decorated by the US Administration for her bravery: “In captivity I had no control over my body, no control over my life. I resisted as best as I could.”

While inquiries by prominent institutions such as the UK Houses of Parliament, and even the UN itself, prove unequivocally the systematic and premeditated nature of the sexual violence and crimes committed by Hamas, the UN so called Human Rights Council seeks to accuse Israel of gender-based attacks. Instead of condemning brutal terrorism, it vilifies those defending innocent lives.

The UNHRC has long abandoned moral integrity, but even by its standards, this is a new low – whitewashing Hamas atrocities while ignoring Israeli pain and agony is not ‘justice,’ it’s an insult to truth and decency. It’s an insult to humanity.”

Sexually Abused. “We see women of all ages… We see the bruises, we learn about the cuts and tears, and we know they have been sexually abused,” Captain Maayan told the BBC

The UNHRC’s bilious and relentless focus on Israel at the expense of other conflicts in the world is proof that the UN body is not only redundant and untrustworthy, but by ignoring sexual crimes against Israelis while perpetuating a blood libel has failed current and future victims of sexual assault. The UNHRC has engaged in grotesque victim blaming and is effectively acting as the diplomatic arm of Hams. This is not a human rights council – it is a sham. Perhaps the time has come for many more countries to follow the US and Israel and exit.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

Lay of the Land Weekly Newsletter- 21 April 2025

Unveiling the contours and contrasts of an ever-changing Middle East landscape Reliable reportage and insightful commentary on the Middle East by seasoned journalists from the region and beyond.

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THE ISRAEL BRIEF- 15-17 April 2025
(Click on the blue title)



Lay of the Land’s  ‘Pick of the Week’

TWO BARBED WIRES

Holocaust Martyrs’ and Heroes’ Remembrance Day 2025 (Yom HaShoah) commemorated this Thursday, April 24th, the image of the barbed wire of the Shoah is joined by the image of the barbed wire broken through on October 7, 2023 as “Never Again” too easily became “Once Again”




Articles

Please note there is a facility to comment beneath each article should you wish to express an opinion on the subject addressed.

(1)

THE REICHSTAG, WWII AND GAZA

A lesson that the world has forgotten
By Neville Berman

Gaza’s “stormtroopers”. Hamas gunmen stand in formation ahead of a hostage release in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. Is this what the world would accept to continue governing Gaza? The writer argues to insist no more than what the allies insisted during WWII – “Unconditional Surrender”.

THE REICHSTAG, WWII AND GAZA
(Click on the blue title)



(2)

AN UNEXPECTED FIFTH SON

A first encounter at a Passover seder left this Capetonian enriched by the experience.
By Tim Flack

Questions and Answers. Attending the Passover Seder at Capetown’s Gardens Synagogue, the writer, not Jewish, went alone,
felt nervous as “I had never been to a synagogue before.” When proceedings reached the narrative of the 4 sons, someone
leaned over and said, “You’re the Fifth Son.” Not understanding at that moment what he meant, “I do now.”

AN UNEXPECTED FIFTH SON
(Click on the blue title)



(3)

SOUTH AFRICA TRYING TO MAKE IT A CRIME TO VISIT ISRAEL

The true crime would be the fragility of a democracy that fails to allow its people to make up their own mind.
By Kenneth Mokgatlhe wa Kgwadi

They Came, They Saw, They Were Ostracized. Causing an uproar in South Africa was the recent fact-finding mission to Israel of South African Members of Parliament – including those in the governing coalition – captured here meeting with Israel’s State President, Isaac Herzog in Jerusalem.

SOUTH AFRICA TRYING TO MAKE IT A CRIME TO VISIT ISRAEL
(Click on the blue title)



(4)

MAXIMUM PRESSURE NOT ONLY PROTECTS AMERICA – IT EMPOWERS IRANIANS

A plea by a survivor of the Iranian regime to the US to apply maximum pressure.
By Iranian American Marziyeh Amirizadeh

Isolate not Negotiate. “America must lead by isolating the regime, not legitimizing it with negotiation,” pleads
the writer who was once imprisoned in Tehran’s notorious Evin prison, where she was tortured
 and faced execution, a fate that befell her cell mate and best friend.

MAXIMUM PRESSURE NOT ONLY PROTECTS AMERICA – IT EMPOWERS IRANIANS
(Click on the blue title)




LOTL Cofounders David E. Kaplan (Editor), Rolene Marks and Yair Chelouche

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While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

MAXIMUM PRESSURE NOT ONLY PROTECTS AMERICA – IT EMPOWERS IRANIANS

A plea by a survivor of the Iranian regime to the US to apply maximum pressure.

By Iranian American Marziyeh Amirizadeh

As an Iranian-born Christian who survived the brutality of Iran’s Evin Prison, I’ve witnessed and suffered the Islamic regime’s cruelty firsthand: their lies, their oppression, their unrelenting hatred for, and repression of any freedom. When I hear about the United States negotiating with Iran’s Islamic leaders, my heart aches for both my homeland and my adopted country, America. Negotiation with this regime is not just futile – it is dangerous. Those who champion an “America First” approach, yet shy away from maximum pressure on Iran are mistaken, either avoiding or ignorant of the truth that the regime’s very survival threatens us all. The only solution for Iran, for America, and for the world is a regime change – a new Iran, free from misogynist Islamic extremism, that will align with the values of liberty and peace for which America stands and should be supporting.

Insights from the Inside. Footage from Tehran’s notorious Evin Prison leaked out in 2021. The writer was imprisoned here in the women’s section where she was tortured and her cell mate and best friend was executed.

Negotiating with Iran’s Islamic regime is like bargaining with a scorpion. Death is inevitable. For over four decades, the Islamic Republic has proven it cannot be trusted. They brainwash children to chant “Death to America” while smiling at and deceiving diplomats. They are the largest global funder of terrorism through its tentacles such as Hezbollah, Hamas, the Houthis, and more, all while pretending to want peace. They violate every international agreement, from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal to basic human rights treaties, with impunity.

Inciting Hate. The US can expect no genuine compromise from an Iran that holds conferences entitled “Long Live Death to America” as it did here on 3 November 2015, at Teheran University. 

I have seen their deception up close. In 2009, I was arrested because of my Christian faith. They tortured me and my cellmates, and executed my best friend. The U.S. cannot afford to repeat the mistake of tried negotiations that only strengthens the regime’s hand, giving them time to advance their nuclear ambitions, oppress their people, and destabilize the Middle East. Let the world not be deceived: for the ayatollahs, negotiation is a tactic to reach their goal of a nuclear weapon. And to be clear, if they achieve a nuclear weapon, they will use it.

Some argue that diplomacy saves American lives and resources, avoiding costly conflicts. But this ignores reality. Appeasement emboldens Iran. When the U.S. eased sanctions, Iran didn’t moderate – it funneled billions into Syria’s war, Yemen’s chaos, and terrorist proxies targeting America and its allies. The regime’s ballistic missile program grew, threatening Israel, global shipping, and beyond. Negotiation doesn’t de-escalate; it escalates, tying America’s hands while Iran grows stronger. A stronger Iran means a greater threat to U.S. security – whether through terrorism, cyberattacks, or, God forbid, a nuclear weapon. Protecting American interests means recognizing that a regime built on anti-Americanism can never be a partner.

I understand the “America First” instinct to avoid foreign entanglements. Many who wave this banner argue that maximum pressure – crippling sanctions, military deterrence, and diplomatic isolation – drains U.S. resources or risks war. But they’re wrong. Maximum pressure isn’t reckless; it’s strategic. It’s essential. It’s the only language the regime understands. When President Trump withdrew from the 2015 JCPOA nuclear deal and imposed harsh sanctions, Iran’s economy buckled. Protests erupted across the country – not just for bread, but for freedom. The regime’s grip weakened, exposing its fragility.

Iran’s Proxy. The slogan on the flag of the Houthis in Yemen reads, “Allah is the greatest. Death to America. Death to Israel. A curse upon the Jews. Victory to Islam“.

Today, with the Islamic regime’s air defenses crippled, it’s critical to finish the job, for America’s interests and for the world. Maximum pressure doesn’t just protect America; it empowers Iranians to demand change. To abandon it now, as some ‘America First’ voices suggest, snatches hope from the Iranian people, and security from the U.S. and the world.  

Regime change is not a fantasy, it’s a necessity. The Islamic Republic is not Iran. It’s a cancer on a nation of 85 million people who yearn for dignity and democracy. I’ve met countless Iranians, from taxi drivers to students, who despise the mullahs. The 2022 uprising, sparked by Mahsa Amini’s murder, showed the world their courage. Women burned hijabs; men faced bullets. They weren’t begging for reform -they were demanding change. Supporting their fight isn’t meddling; it’s justice.

Terrorizing the region to terrorizing its own People. Demonstrators march during a protest for Mahsa Amini who died in custody of Iran’s morality police, in front of the Los Angeles City Hall, Los Angeles, California, Oct. 1, 2022 (Photo: Apu Gomes/AFP)
 

For Iran, regime change means a chance to rebuild, to restore a proud civilization hijacked by Islamic extremism. Some fear a regime change will lead to chaos, pointing to Iraq or Libya. But Iran is different. It has a rich history, a strong national identity, and a population educated, ready, and begging for self-governance. The U.S. doesn’t need to invade – it needs to amplify Iranian voices. Sanctions can starve the regime’s coffers. Cyber tools can disrupt their propaganda. Diplomatic support can legitimize the opposition. And yes, the U.S. must empower and partner with its allies to do so, foremost Israel which is in the ayatollah’s crosshairs. America must lead by isolating the regime, not legitimizing it with negotiation.

Iranians dream of a free Iran where one can worship as they wish, where women walk unveiled without threats of arrest and torture, where children aren’t indoctrinated to hate. But Iranians are fearful that the negotiations will betray them, again, as was done by Presidents Obama and Biden. If it’s true that negotiations will only limit Iranian uranium enrichment rather than eliminating every element of the Iranian nuclear program, and leave the regime in place not just to continue to lie and take advantage of western naiveté, but to rebuild and continue to oppress them, it will be a disastrous failure. The pursuit of a democratic Iran would be an essential partner against extremism, a market for trade and a beacon of stability but requires courage, not compromise. Negotiation prolongs the regime’s life, and threatens Iranians and the world.

Menacing Message. The Jewish Star of David, the Swastika and the US flag are integrated in public imagery at this protest in Teheran. (Photo: Majid Saeedi / Getty Images).
 

The economy is crumbling, and the Supreme Leader is old and ill. The time is now to end the evil ayatollah’s regime, restore Iran to its people, and keep America and the world safe.

I’ve seen the cost of tyranny in Evin Prison. America needs to stand with Iran’s people, not their oppressors. End the illusion of diplomacy. Embrace the power of pressure. Together, we can topple a regime and build a future where Iran and America thrive as friends, not enemies.



About the writer:

Marziyeh Amirizadeh is an Iranian American who immigrated to the US after being sentenced to death in Iran for the crime of converting to Christianity.   She endured months of mental and physical hardships and intense interrogation. She is author of two books (the latest, ‘A Love Journey with God’), public speaker, and activist for religious freedom. She has shared her inspiring story throughout the United States and around the world, to bring awareness about the ongoing human rights violations and persecution of women and religious minorities in Iran.

http://www.MarzisJourney.com.






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

THE ISRAEL BRIEF- 15-17 April 2025

15 April 2025 – Are we closer to a hostage deal? This and more on The Israel Brief.



16 April 2025 – A story to melt everyone’s heart and more on The Israel Brief.



17 April 2025 – Is Hamas running out of money? This and more on The Israel Brief.






While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO).

THE REICHSTAG, WWII AND GAZA

A lesson that the world has forgotten

By Neville Berman

The present war in Gaza has to be the final war between Hamas and Israel. The people in Gaza need to understand what the Germans understood in 1945. Hamas has to be treated in the same way that Nazi Germany was treated after the end of the Second World War. Unfortunately, there are governments and institutions that are determined to ensure that this will not happen. What they want is a ceasefire that will allow Hamas to remain in control of Gaza, and to be able to rearm in order to attack Israel again in the future. No one is demanding unconditional surrender. This war is the first war in history where the country that was attacked, is accused of:

– using disproportionate force in defending itself

– of committing crimes against humanity, and even

– the crime of genocide.

All the horrendous crimes committed by Hamas are being ignored.   

Gaza’s “stormtroopers”. Hamas gunmen stand in formation ahead of a hostage release in Deir al-Balah, central Gaza Strip, Feb. 8, 2025. Is this what the world would accept to continue governing Gaza? (Photo: AP Photo/Abdel Kareem Hana)

Let us look at what happened with Nazi Germany and see if some lessons can be learnt that allowed Europe to return to peaceful coexistence and prosperity.  

In 1933, the Nazi Party blamed a fire in the Reichstag building on the communists. They used this as an excuse to institute emergency powers that were used to crush all opposition and to take total control of Germany. In September 1939 the most devastating war in history started. Over 60 million people would be killed before it was over.   

By 1945 Germany was a completely different country to what it was in 1939. Approximately 10% of the German population had been killed during the war. Hundreds of thousands of German soldiers were prisoners in Russia. Allied bombing and the advancing Russian army had reduced parts of every major town and city in Germany into piles of rubble. Over a hundred thousand German women were raped by Russian soldiers. Hundreds of thousands of German people were homeless. People were looking in garbage cans for scraps of food. Nazi Germany was facing its final days. Faced with the rapidly advancing Russian army, Hitler committed suicide. Everyone in Germany understood that Germany had been totally defeated. The only option was to agree to “unconditional surrender” – an objective of the war advanced by US President, Franklin D. Roosevelt at the Casablanca Conference in January 1943.

Devastation and Destruction. Some 80 per cent of historic buildings in Germany were flattened by Allied bombing during World War II.

The Nazi Party dream of a thousand-year Reich had ended. In order to escape justice, hundreds of Nazis were trying to flee to South America.  

Having signed unconditional surrender, the Allies were now in a position to decide the future of Germany. All Allied prisoners of war were immediately released. In consideration of the position of Russian forces in Germany, Germany was divided into East and West Germany. After the revelations of the mass murder of 6 million Jews, it was decided that the Nazi leadership responsible for the unprecedented crimes of the Holocaust would face trials at Nuremberg. They would be tried for the newly created crime of committing “crimes against humanity”. None of them claimed that the Holocaust did not happen, resorting instead to the defence that they “were following orders.” Of crucial importance was the American decision to finance the rebuilding of West Germany in what was called the Marshall Plan. The Nazi Party and the denial of the holocaust were outlawed under German law promoted by the new German government.   

No Compromising with Evil. Field-Marshal Wilhelm Keitel signing the unconditional surrender document of the German Wehrmacht, 8 May 1945 ending WWII in Europe.

In 1949 the capital of West Germany was moved provisionally to Bonn. Forty years later the fall of the Berlin Wall signalled the end of the division of Germany. There was a strong feeling that it was time to move the capital of a united Germany back to Berlin.

An architectural competition was held to determine which firm would be chosen to rebuild the old Reichstag building that was designated to become the seat of the German parliament. In a hugely symbolic and brave decision, the British architectural firm of Norman Foster was chosen to redesign the Reichstag building. The project would take 4 years and was completed in 1999. The end result is a masterpiece of design, symbolism and attention to detail.

The Reichstag building is impressive in every aspect. Natural lighting is used to the maximum with a circular glass domed ceiling in the main parliamentary chamber, and large glass windows throughout the building. On entering the Reichstag, the first thing that one notices is a wall that contains names of Russian soldiers who stormed the Reichstag in May 1945. Dozens of Russian names, and the date that they were there, has been preserved for posterity. It is a permanent warning that there are severe consequences for initiating war. It is hard to conceive of any other parliament building, anywhere in the world, that contains such a powerful message.

Let there be Light. Built at the end of the war-ravaged 20th century, which Germany had a lot to answer for, the new Reichstag building symbolizes the refurbishing of a tarnished image – not of the original parliament building itself, but of German national identity. Completed in 1999 in a united Germany, the huge circular glass dome invites light on a legislature once characterized by a dark and troubled history. (© German Bundestag/Neuhauser)

The German eagle has a long history as the symbol of Germany. Norman Foster wanted something different. He designed a huge new silver eagle with a puffed-up chest and open wingspan that he decided to display directly above and behind the speaker’s podium in the main parliamentary chamber. The new eagle symbolizes a new prosperous future for a united Germany. 

Behind the speaker’s podium is a large room that features a racing boat attached to the ceiling. The boat is similar to those used in the annual Oxford Cambridge boat race. At first glance the boat looks totally out of place. What on earth was Norman Foster thinking of when he placed a racing boat in the ceiling? The answer was provided by the guide. The speed and direction of the boat is determined by all the rowers pulling together in the same direction. It is a masterful demonstration of what parliamentarians should be doing.

Members of the public can look down on the main parliamentary chamber by walking along a circular walkway in the domed roof of the building. The symbolism is that the people are above the elected officials seated below. It is a powerful symbol of what democracy is all about. The job of the politicians is to serve the people

It is apparent that the world has forgotten the lessons of what brought about a totally different Germany after 1945. Instead of demanding unconditional surrender and the immediate release of all the hostages, followed by international trials for Hamas leaders for promoting hatred and crimes against humanity, the world wants to reward Hamas by rebuilding Gaza and to create a Palestinian State whose main aim is the destruction of Israel.

Flats Flattened. Overall, it is estimated that up to 70% of buildings in Germany had been made uninhabitable due to Allied bombings, and in some areas, it was worse. In 1939, Germany had some 16 million flats, but by the end of the war, 2.5 million had been destroyed, and another 4 million were uninhabitable, according to Der Spiegel.

It is also completely apparent that Israeli politicians have absolutely no idea of the concept of rowing together. What a shame that the lessons of the past have been totally forgotten by those that should know better.  



About the writer:

Accountant Neville Berman had an illustrious sporting career in South Africa, being twice awarded the South African State Presidents Award for Sport and was a three times winner of the South African Maccabi Sportsman of the Year Award.  In 1978 he immigrated to the USA  to coach the United States men’s field hockey team, whereafter, in 1981 he immigrated to Israel where he practiced as an accountant and then for 20 years was the Admin Manager at the American International School in Even Yehuda, Israel.  He is married with two children and one granddaughter.





While the mission of Lay of the Land (LotL) is to provide a wide and diverse perspective of affairs in Israel, the Middle East and the Jewish world, the opinions, beliefs and viewpoints expressed by its various writers are not necessarily ones of the owners and management of LOTL but of the writers themselves.  LotL endeavours to the best of its ability to credit the use of all known photographs to the photographer and/or owner of such photographs (0&EO)