A Gen Z perspective on Gay Rights in the Middle East
By Blessing Mathabela
Pinkwashing critiques are loud, but in the Middle East, Israel’s queer rights progress is speaking louder! “Pinkwashing” is a term that often comes up when discussing Israel’s LGBTQ+ rights record. Critics argue that Israel uses its progressive stance on queer issues to deflect attention from its treatment of Palestinians. While this critique potentially holds some truth, it overlooks an important reality: in the broader Middle East, where queer rights are virtually non-existent, Israel’s progress in this area stands out. That doesn’t mean Israel is perfect, but it’s not pinkwashing to recognise the strides it has made towards the advancement of queer rights.
Critics of Israel’s pinkwashing are quick to point fingers, but where are the solutions for the LGBTQ+ people suffering in countries where simply existing as queer is a criminal act?
Homosexuality and Hypocrisy. In the Palestinian territories, homosexuality is considered a taboo subject with LGBTQ people experiencing persecution and violence, while in neighbouring Israel, LGBTQI individuals enjoy a high degree of rights and freedoms incomparable anywhere else in the Middle East. Same-sex relationships in Israel have been legal since 1988.
LGBTQ+ RIGHTS IN ISRAEL
Israel, for all its faults, is more progressive when it comes to LGBTQ+ rights than many of its neighbours. In Israel, LGBTQI individuals enjoy a higher degree of rights and freedoms compared to many countries in the Middle East. Same-sex relationships have been legal since 1988, and the country boasts a robust legal framework for LGBTQI individuals, including protections against workplace discrimination. Israel also has a thriving LGBTQI community, with Tel Aviv widely regarded as one of the most LGBTQI-friendly cities in the world. The city hosts one of the largest Pride events in the region, attracting both local and international visitors. In addition, LGBTQI Israelis have the right to adopt children, access IVF treatments, and even serve openly in the military. However, while progress has been made, challenges remain, especially within conservative religious Orthodox Jewish communities which maintain traditional views on gender and sexuality. Arab communities in Israel, particularly Palestinian Arabs, also tend to hold conservative views on LGBTQ+ issues, influenced by traditional cultural and religious norms. Many Arab citizens of Israel are Muslim or Christian, and in these communities, homosexuality is often seen as taboo due to conservative interpretations of Islam and Christianity. As a result, LGBTQ+ individuals in these communities often face significant social stigma, familial rejection, and discrimination. While Israel provides legal protections for LGBTQ+ people, including in its civil courts, the cultural acceptance of LGBTQ+ individuals is still limited within many Arab communities, leading to challenges for queer Palestinians in living openly.
LGBTQ+ RIGHTS IN THE MIDDLE EAST
In most Middle Eastern countries, LGBTQ+ individuals face extreme persecution. In Iran, Saudi Arabia, and Egypt, same-sex relationships are punishable by imprisonment, torture, and sometimes even execution. In these countries, being queer is not just illegal – it’s life-threatening. Israel may have a complicated history with its treatment of Palestinians, but when it comes to queer rights, it’s miles ahead of its neighbours. There is no denying that Israel’s queer community has more legal rights and visibility than queer people in countries like Saudi Arabia, where LGBTQ+ people face extreme danger just for existing. Yet, the conversation around pinkwashing too often ignores this harsh reality for millions of queer people across the region.
How Queer! Totally incoherent are the Queers for Palestine at anti-Israel rallies. Ostracized and persecuted in Palestine as in most Arab counties throughout the Middle East, is it any wonder that their slogans have been widely satirized with variations like “Chickens for KFC” or “Blacks for the KKK”.
PALESTINIAN LGBTQ+: CAUGHT IN THE CROSSFIRE
It’s crucial to remember that queer Palestinians are not exempt from the oppression faced by LGBTQ+ in the broader Middle East. In Palestinian territories, homosexuality remains illegal, and LGBTQ+ individuals often face rejection from their families and communities. The situation is further complicated by the ongoing Israel-Palestine conflict, where queer Palestinians are caught between the struggle for liberation and the struggle for their own rights within their communities.
For Palestinian queers, the pinkwashing debate can feel like another form of erasure. While their struggle is often overshadowed by the political conflict, queer Palestinians are doubly oppressed: both by the larger societal and political systems around them, and by the discriminatory attitudes towards queerness within their own communities. This isn’t just about Israel – it’s about the broader regional context where queer people, regardless of nationality, are facing unimaginable hardships.
CRITICISING PINKWASHING WITHOUT SOLUTIONS
Critics of pinkwashing often focus on Israel’s use of LGBTQ+ rights to distract from its treatment of Palestinians, but they rarely offer concrete solutions to improve the lives of queer people in the Middle East. Yes, Israel’s policies towards Palestinians need attention, but that doesn’t mean we should ignore the suffering of queer people in countries where being LGBTQ+ can result in imprisonment, violence, or worse.
Accusations of pink-washing are easy to make, but they fail to address the real problem: queer people in the Middle East are living under constant threat. So, while critics focus on the political strategy behind Israel’s queer-friendly policies, they miss the larger issue—how do we protect queer people in the region? Without offering actionable ideas to improve the situation, these criticisms are just noise.
Crazy Crowd. One of the many memes that the “Queers for Palestine” spawned highlighting just how incompatible the values of the Western left are with the Islamic right they so readily champion. (Source: X)
THE BIGGER PICTURE: REAL CHANGE, NOT DISTRACTION
While pinkwashing may be a valid critique, we need to keep it in perspective. The real issue is that queer people in the Middle East – whether Israeli or Palestinian – are facing violence and oppression. It’s time to stop letting the debate distract from the larger issue at hand. Instead of engaging in finger-pointing, let’s focus on what needs to change: the way queer people are treated in countries where their existence is criminalised.
If critics want to challenge Israel’s use of LGBTQ+ rights for political purposes, they need to come up with real solutions for the queer people who are suffering right now. It’s not enough to call out one country’s strategy without addressing the systematic abuse queer people face throughout the region.
Hang ’Em High. Hamas and Hezbollah’s major sponsor, Iran, has executed between 4,000 to 6,000 gay, lesbian, and bi people since the 1979 Islamic Revolution, many of them in public like this hanging from a crane. (Source: The Algemeiner)
As a South African, I recognise the value of a constitution that explicitly protects the rights of the LGBTQI+ community. In a country where equality is hard-won and deeply ingrained in our laws, it’s a privilege to live in a space that doesn’t treat sexual discrimination as an afterthought. This is something we should not take for granted, especially when so many Queer people worldwide are still fighting for their basic rights. From my perspective, I can appreciate Israel’s progress on queer rights, given the harsh realities faced by the LGBTQI+ community in Palestine and the other neighbouring countries. We must ensure that our advocacy is not limited to criticism alone but translates into meaningful action to protect the LGBTQI+ community everywhere.
Until the fight for global queer rights is truly universal, Israel’s steps forward in this area deserve recognition.
Israel’s 9/11 | Real Time with Bill Maher (HBO)
About the writer:
Blessing Mathabela is a passionate gender justice advocate and a third-year B.Ed student majoring in English and Social Sciences at the University of the Witwatersrand (Wits). With a strong commitment to creating inclusive and equitable spaces, Blessing has held leadership roles as the Deputy Chairperson of the School of Education and as a Secretary on the All-Residences Sub-Council. She has also volunteered at the Gender Equity Office at Wits, where she worked to amplify marginalised voices and challenge systemic injustice. A dedicated feminist, Blessing is driven by her mission to empower others and advocate for social change both on and off campus.
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).
Wherever the Islamic Republic of Iran’s influence extends, human rights diminish, freedom contracts, and women are forced into submission.
By Catherine Perez-Shakdam
The arrest of a female student in Tehran, who courageously stripped down to her underwear in protest against the Islamic Republic of Iran’s oppressive dress codes, is yet another grim illustration of the regime’s endless war against personal freedom. Amnesty International’s urgent call for her immediate release highlights the brutal lengths to which the authorities of the Islamic Republic will go to maintain control over their citizens, especially women. Yet this event is far from an isolated episode within Iran’s borders. The Islamic Republic’s repressive ideology has metastasized far beyond Tehran, extending its reach to every corner of the so-called Shia Crescent, leaving a trail of intimidation, violence, and oppression in its wake.
Iran Exposed. The young woman student stripped in protest after being assaulted for improperly wearing a hijab in violation of Tehran’s strict modesty laws.(Photo credit: SCREENSHOT/X/VIA)
The Islamic Republic’s abuse of its own population is no new phenomenon, and women, in particular, have been subjected to some of its worst excesses. This young student – harassed, humiliated, and assaulted by security forces for defying Iran’s enforced veiling laws – was simply the latest target of an autocratic theocracy that cannot tolerate even the faintest sign of individual autonomy. But to see this as merely a domestic issue is to underestimate both the ambitions and the reach of the Islamic Republic of Iran. This Islamic regime has turned repression into an exportable doctrine, refining it over decades and passing its brutal model on to allies and proxies across the Middle East.
Iranian student arrested after removing clothes at university
Consider Iraq, where militias aligned with the Islamic Republic of Iran terrorise activists, particularly women and minority groups, in a grotesque attempt to recreate the ideological stranglehold seen in Iran. Or Lebanon, where Hezbollah has systematically embedded the Islamic Republic’s worldview into Lebanese society, harnessing anti-Israel sentiment to deflect from the group’s own suffocating grip on the country. In Syria, Iran-backed forces have crushed any glimmer of democratic reform in favour of endless brutality and conformity to Tehran’s model. And in Yemen, the Houthis – armed and ideologically shaped by the Islamic Republic – have left ordinary Yemenis with little freedom and less hope, forcing the same script of obedience and control onto yet another suffering populace.
Women behind Bars. It was not too long ago that Iranian women were banned from entering stadiums as seen here as young girls watch a practice session of Iran’s national soccer team from behind the railings. (Photo: Morteza Nikoubazi/Reuters)
The disturbing consistency here is undeniable: wherever the Islamic Republic of Iran’s influence extends, human rights diminish, freedom contracts, and women, in particular, are forced into submission. But what’s particularly insidious is how the Islamic Republic cloaks this brutality. The regime has long relied on anti-Zionism as a powerful smokescreen, deflecting attention from its own abuses. By positioning itself as the “defender” of the Palestinian cause, the Islamic Republic has managed to rally international support and galvanise its base. Yet this posturing is a fraud. Anti-Zionism serves merely as a tool to distract from the regime’s very real war on freedom within its own borders and across the region.
Defiance. Says Masih Alinejad, an Iranian-American journalist, author, and women’s rights activist who the IRGC attempted to assassinate, commented on X: “In Iran, a student harassed by her university’s morality police over her ‘improper’ hijab didn’t back down. She turned her body into a protest, stripping to her underwear and marching through campus – defying a regime that constantly controls women’s bodies. Her act is a powerful reminder of Iranian women’s fight for freedom. Yes, we use our bodies like weapons to fight back a regime that kills women for showing their hair.”
The Islamic Republic’s calculated embrace of anti-Zionist rhetoric is not about solidarity; it’s about survival. For the regime, casting Israel as the enemy diverts attention from the crimes it commits daily against its own citizens. When people are focused on an external foe, they’re less likely to question the oppression and corruption of their own rulers. But the cost of this tactic is high, and it is borne by countless women, minorities, and dissenters across the Middle East who find themselves as pawns in the Islamic Republic’s grand narrative.
It’s time we look beyond the Islamic Republic of Iran’s self-styled image as a regional “resistance” force. The tragic case of this young student in Tehran, stripped of her dignity and denied her freedom for a simple act of protest, is a stark reminder of the true face of the regime. Her experience mirrors that of women and activists across the territories where the Islamic Republic’s proxies hold sway. This is not a war confined to Iran’s borders; it’s a transnational crusade against individual freedom and autonomy, exported through fear, repression, and force.
Targeting Women. Iranian teenager Nika Shakrami, killed after her arrest during protests in Iran, seen here on a cell phone, October 6, 2022. (Photo: AFP)
For too long, the West has failed to see through the Islamic Republic of Iran’s duplicity. Anti-Zionism may be a convenient political tool for Iran, but it is a mask for a regime that fears freedom, despises dissent, and punishes those who dare to defy it. If we are serious about supporting human rights and democracy, we must confront the Islamic Republic’s oppressive influence head-on, challenging both its domestic abuses and the exported doctrine that has left so many in fear and desperation.
Warpath against Women. Mahsa Amini, the 22-year-old Kurdish-Iranian woman who was arrested for allegedly violating Iran’s mandatory headscarf law died in police custody in 2022, sparked worldwide protests against the country’s conservative Islamic theocracy.
The international community owes it to this young woman – and to every individual in Iran and across the region who still dares to seek freedom – to see through the Islamic Republic’s narrative for what it is: a sham. The Islamic Republic of Iran’s ideological warfare against Israel has never been about justice; it has been a calculated device to sustain a regime that survives by denying others their rights. The Islamic Republic’s war on women, on minorities, and on basic freedoms is not just Iran’s problem. It is a cancer that has spread through its proxies and threatens all who stand for the right to be free.
The time for understanding the Islamic Republic of Iran’s duplicity is over; the time to expose it is now.
Video evidence shows multiple arrests after regime launched draconian campaign against women and girls
About the writer:
A co-founder and director of UK-based media and consultancy company ‘Forward Strategy’, Catherine Perez-Shakdam is a frequent contributor to i24NEWS, Al Jazeera, the BBC, The Jerusalem Post, Politico, the Daily Express, and the Daily Mail. In 2021, Chatherine gained international attention when news broke of her decade-long infiltration of the Iranian regime, during which she was able to gain access to the highest echelons of the regime’s inner circles. Despite the danger following being labeled an ‘enemy of the state’ by Iran, Catherine utilized her extensive knowledge and close-encounter insight to expose a system that had long operated under a shroud of secrecy. Her revelations have provided a unique perspective on Iran’s actions, challenging its narrative and exposing the true nature of its operations.
Feature picture: AI Generate image courtesy of Catherine Perez-Shakdam
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).
Voters are treated as powerless pawns to legitimize a terrorist regime.
By Marziyeh Amirizadeh
This week’s Iran’s presidential election is really a “selection”, controlled by its all-powerful Supreme Leader, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei. Only candidates who are approved, vetted, and qualified by the 12 member Guardian Council are eligible to participate in this three-ring circus. Six Guardian Council members are appointed directly by the Supreme Leader. The other six are selected by Khamenei’s hand-picked judiciary chief. The judiciary chief is appointed not because of his qualifications as a jurist, but because of his loyalty to the Supreme Leader. The Guardian Council members are the singularly most loyal soldiers and servants of the Supreme Leader. They are his clowns to run the country, jumping through hoops as the ringmaster Khamenei wishes.
Iran’s Supreme Puppeteer. Going through the visual pretense of an “election”, Iran’s supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei votes in Tehran, with the country going to the polls to elect a successor to the late president Ebrahim Raisi, who was killed in a helicopter crash. (Photo: AFP)
After the mysterious death of President Raisi in a helicopter crash last month, the Islamic regime launched its circus presidential “selection”. The Guardian Council (AKA the Supreme Leader) approved six candidates. Five hardliners, and one reformist, Masoud Pezeshkian.
What qualifies the candidates is not their education, political or diplomatic proficiency, or their experience running a country. Their qualification is based exclusively on their subservience to the Supreme Leader, blood on their hands from killing dissidents, and supporting, organizing, and exporting extremist Islamic ideology and terrorism abroad.
The candidates are indeed clowns, puppets of the Supreme Leader. Their resumes echo their servitude, having served as commanders of the IRGC, members of Basij (secret police), parliamentarians, or in different capacities under the Supreme Leader’s direct supervision. Each candidate excels at serving the Supreme Leader through suppression and killing of countless Iranian civilians, or expanding terrorism in the Middle East to organizations like Hamas, Hezbollah, and other proxies, killing Israelis and other innocents.
In the circus of Iranian elections, the Supreme Leader always selects one reformist candidate to deceive people to bring them to the ballot box, ostensibly to legitimize the show. As always, the reformist clown, this time Pezeshkian, plays the part of a candidate on the side of people, seeming to care about their issues.
Contrived Contest. The election is presented as a three-way contest between two hardline candidates, Saeed Jalili and Mohammad Baqer Qalibaf, and reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, but the outcome is all decided before the first vote is cast. (Photo: Reuters)
One issue that reformists always play with is the suppression of women for not wearing a hijab. Publicly, Pezeshkian promises to address this issue and give women their freedom. His campaign motto is “For Iran”. “For” in Farsi is “baraye” which is the name of the song that became the anthem of the “Woman, Life, Freedom” movement after the brutal 2022 murder of Mahsa Amini, an Iranian Kurdish woman who was murdered by the regime for not wearing a hijab. By using this motto “For Iran”, Pezeshkian tries to deceive Iranians that he cares about Iranians and is going to work for them.
In fact, reformists and hardliners are opposite sides of the same coin. Together, they act as oxygen to the regime. In the presidential selection this week, Pezeshkian plays the sympathetic reformist clown of the Supreme Leader to deceive the world that Iranians support the Islamic regime through the electoral circus. Nevertheless, the majority of Iranians know that the president has already been selected, and the circus of an “election” is just a side show for the world to see, to legitimize a terrorist regime in power.
For years, Iranians were deceived by this tactic. In the 2009 presidential selection, millions of Iranians voted for a reformist candidate, but the Supreme Leader selected hardliner Ahmadinejad, teaching Iranians a lesson that in the Islamic regime dictatorship, Iranians have no voice, and their vote counts for nothing. It amplified that reformists only prop up the regime, and are worse than the hardliners.
After the brutal murder of Mahsa Amini, more than 80 million Iranians said “NO” to the Islamic regime. That is the true vote of Iranians that unfortunately the world’s leaders refuse to hear. Iranians chanted in the streets, “Hardliners, reformists, the game is over.”
Killed in Custody. For the writer, this is the true vote of the people of what that they think of their leadership. Iranian demonstrators take to the streets of the capital Tehran during a protest for Mahsa Amini, days after she died in police custody. Protests spread to 15 cities across Iran over her death following her arrest by the country’s morality police. (Photo: AFP via Getty Images)
However, in this presidential selection in order to deceive people to vote for him, Pezeshkian, is using another tactic of the former Foreign Minister Javad Zarif, the master of deceiving Iranians. Zarif, during one of his interviews outside Iran, said that despite all the regime’s suppression, Iranians always support their leaders. In addition to Pezeshkian as candidate, regime-exported reformist agents outside Iran work ceaselessly to extort legitimacy for the regime from western leaders. Zarif was one of the masterminds to plant reformists in key leadership roles outside Iran for this critical time.
While millions of Iranians boycott the presidential selection circus, the Islamic regime is working tirelessly to gather their followers to sham campaign rallies, deceiving people through bribery, and giving them false hope. They bus many of their followers, and Afghan migrants as additional clowns, to create a crowd for their presidential puppets. While Iranians are not familiar with iconic circus leader PT Barnum, the regime subscribes to his truism that there’s “a sucker born every minute.”
Shockingly, reformists outside Iran, with the help of the Biden administration, are also organizing more than 30 polling stations in different states for the regime’s agents who are enjoy freedoms in the United States, to be able to cast their votes for the killers at home. Through this, they use illusions through smoke and mirrors to pretend to Americans that Iran has any democracy.
Election Deception. The reformist candidate Masoud Pezeshkian, who the writer characterizes as little more than a “clown” playing the part of a candidate on the side of people, seeming to care about their issues.
While Iranians have no hope for the future of their country as long as this evil regime is in power, President Biden is giving hope to the ayatollahs to stay in power for his own interests, and in support of his presidential candidacy.
No matter how hard the Biden administration and some western politicians are working behind the scenes to keep the biggest state sponsor of terrorism in power, history has proven that dictators will collapse when 90% of people say enough is enough. The outcome of this week’s “selection” is pre-determined, but Iranians will eventually realize victory and take back their freedom despite all the betrayals.
Shame and treason will be the only legacy of those who stand on the wrongside of the history with the Supreme Leader and ayatollahs.
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.
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).
Nowhere else in the world are persecuted Christians in more danger from mob violence than in Muslim Pakistan but clearly a story of no interest to a world unless it can blame Jews!
By Jonathan Feldstein
If you were to read this article about the first Christian woman in Pakistan to become a brigadier general, you would think that Pakistan was a bastion of tolerant interfaith liberalism. Nothing is further from the truth. Let’s look at this in the proper context.
Last month, something horrible happened in Bethlehem. “Christ at the Checkpoint” is a clever name for a nefarious orgy of hatred organized by people who call themselves Christians, but who advocate for the destruction of Israel, and the massacre of Jewish people. It is built on a biblically baseless foundation riddled with replacement theology, propagating the lie that God no longer has a covenant with the Jewish people.
Praying for Protection. Pakistani Christians hold a demonstration condemning a recent mob attack on a Christian settlement in Peshawar, Pakistan, August 20, 2023. ( Photo: Mohammad Sajjad/AP)
Unfortunately, more and more people believe and advocate for this including a recent interview by Tucker Carlson with Reverend Munther Isaac, one of the leaders of Palestinian liberation theology, and biggest proponents of the hollow theology that it represents.
I was reminded of this recently when a Christian friend in Pakistan contacted me to ask for my help. I cannot write anything that will reveal who or where she is, but her circumstances along with that many Christians in Pakistan, are harrowing. I, an Orthodox Jew, have been helping them for years.
My friend and her family have been subject to multiple instances of persecution and assault. Recently she and another family member were hospitalized due to Moslems beating them just because they’re Christian. I have seen the X-rays for broken bones that will heal, but in a society that is riddled with hate there is too much that will not heal. The most recent attack on her family is the third in recent months, as they try to force them to convert to Islam, and force their women to marry Moslem men.
My friend is incredibly strong in her faith. I wish I could share everything that I know. She, her family, and countless other Christians, live in fear. I have a number of Christian friends in Pakistan who tell me the same story.
She asked for my help because they fear for their lives. They need to leave Pakistan, to flee to another country.
She told me where they can go to claim asylum, and how much it will cost. On the one hand, she is my friend and I want to help in any way I can personally. Because of my work building bridges between Jews and Christians, I am also focused on helping Christians who are in dire need, especially here in the Middle East, and especially when facing similar threats from Moslems as we do in Israel. From a human perspective, it’s hard to say no.
Anyone at the UN interested? A Muslim crowd vandalized churches and torched homes in the town in the Faisalabad district after two Christians were accused of blasphemy in Aug. 16, 2023. (OSV News photo/Fayyaz Hussain, Reuters)
Another friend has been asking me for months if I can help him get a visa to any country where he can find work. Unfortunately, I have no connections to help him, and unfortunately, even other Christians with links to Pakistan who I have asked to help have been unresponsive. You can walk across the Mexican border with no problem, but actually getting a visa to flee, that’s insurmountable.
I know that if it were possible, there would be an infinite number of Christians who would flee Pakistan and other Arab Islamic countries. There’s a timeless Jewish teaching that “he who saves one live saves the world.” The Genesis 123 Foundation is committed to saving as many lives as possible.
I thought of Tucker Carlson’s appalling interview because he not only allowed, but propagated a lie of Christians suffering at the hand of Israel. He and Munther Isaac blamed the suffering of Palestinian Arab Christians on Israel, without once mentioning anything about Islam, or the actual Moslem neighbors who truly threaten Christians, and under whose control Bethlehem has gone from a city of 80% Christian to less than 10%.
Cunning Carlson. Tucker Carlson blames Israel for Christian suffering in Bethlehem and in opening remarks, implies that Christians are dying disproportionately in Israel’s war with Hamas, deviously intended to provoke American Christians to turn away from Israel.
I also know the truth of Christians being persecuted and threatened in the Palestinian Authority, and in Israel, by their Moslem neighbors firsthand, from Arab Christians who share with me their frustration and fear.
Tucker Carlson asked rhetorically why more people don’t stand up for a Christians in the Middle East to set up a way to blame Israel rather than actually identify the cause. Since I have worked helping Christians in Pakistan, Turkey, Israel, and the Palestinian Authority for years, my response is very clear. Christians typically are not as tribal as Jews, and do not see the suffering of Christians in other parts of the world as being something for which they have an inherent responsibility, or ability to overcome. Jews consider helping one another an imperative.
Torching Christians. One of the churches burned down on the outskirts of Faisalabad in 2023, following an attack by Muslim men after a Christian family was accused of blasphemy. (Photo: Ghazanfar Majidi/AFP/Getty Images)
In the past, when I initiated major campaigns to help Christians in the Middle East, I have been frustrated with the lack of support, wondering why at least a million Christians don’t donate $10 to make a real difference. Maybe $25.
Nevertheless, I cannot stop advocating for my friends, Christians living in Arab and Moslem nations, and for Christians in general.
For my friend’s family of five it will cost $37,000 to pay for their visas, airfare, and initial setting up of a home in another country. That’s $7,400 each to give them a new life free of fear, free of violent assaults, and with the ability to live as Christians. But it’s also half of an average annual Pakistani income. So, the dream of leaving is no more possible than the unbearable nightmare of their reality. Somewhere in there is a clever Mastercard commercial. But this is life and death, and saving a single life is “priceless.”
Muslim Mobs. No church is safe as was this one on the outskirts of Faisalabad under the country’s strict blasphemy laws. (Photo: Ghazanfar Majidi/AFP/Getty Images)
I suspect that the closest that Tucker Carlson ever has come to actually doing something tangible on behalf of Christians in the Middle East, is his disappointing and dishonest diatribe blaming Israel for problems rather than looking for actual solutions, than truly doing anything to help directly. That is shameful. It’s one thing to be dispassionate and do nothing. But it’s another thing to spread lies that make the situation for Christians in the Middle East even worse. Maybe Tucker will see this, and maybe he will surprise us and donate the $37,000.
Homeless Pakistani Christians. Due to the country’s blasphemy laws and an anti-Christian worldview, the majority of Pakistani Christians live in extreme poverty and endure threats of incarceration, violence, and even death.
Let’s assume that he doesn’t and let’s assume that nobody else will step up. As a network of Jews and Christians working together, worldwide, I have asked and received a warm response so far for people to join the Genesis 123 Foundation to make a difference and help at least this one family since there are far more persecuted Christians in Pakistan than those promoted to brigadier general.
About the writer:
Jonathan Feldstein - President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.
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).
Thoughts and prayers for those brutally murdered and those held hostage in Gaza
By Rolene Marks
[Warning: Graphic Content]
I think of Kfir. I see his toothless baby grin, his head of burnished copper hair. He is 9 months old.
I think of Joshua and Clemence, two students from Tanzania who were in Israel on an agricultural programme, learning skills to take back to their country.
I think of Mia Schem. Beautiful Mia, whose blue eyes are haunting. Little Abigail Idan is 3-years- old. Her parents were killed in front of her and her siblings. Her sibling are safe but she was taken. She must be terrified. Is there someone to comfort her? To hold her? To make the monsters go away?
I think of Hersh. His arm was blown off. Is he still alive? Vivian Silver is in her 70’s. She is a peace activist. A Holocaust survivor taken in her wheelchair. Is her life going to be bookended by the horrors and tragedies the Jewish people know very well?
Ohad celebrated his 9th birthday as a hostage. The horror is unimaginable. They are babies and children, mothers, fathers, foreign workers, tourists, whole families, the elderly, men and women and the disabled.
I think of the young woman, dragged out from a jeep by her hair, hands bound behind her back and blood all over the seat of her pants. The unimaginable is obvious. She has been sexually assaulted, paraded like a prize in Gaza. Who tends to her wounds, who tends to her shattered, traumatized body?
At last count, 242 Israelis and foreign nationals have been taken hostage by Hamas terrorists. Like many, I spend a lot of time thinking about them and their families. I think of the empty spaces at the Shabbat dinner tables. I wonder if they are all being held together or if they have separated men from women, mothers from their babies.
I think of the families in anguish. They do not sleep, they do not eat. They just worry. They are enduring the unimaginable and their courage is staggering.
Watch:
Bring Back My Daughter
Israel is a nation still coming to terms with our shock and grief. The atrocities committed by Hamas happened in our home, to our citizens. We all know somebody who has been murdered, taken hostage of kidnapped.
We are learning more and more on a daily basis about the depths and levels of depravity that Hamas inflicted on our people. This was the greatest loss of Jewish life since the Holocaust.
Whole families exterminated, women and children raped and tortured, babies burnt and beheaded (yes, it HAS been substantiated), the elderly gunned down, revelers at a peace festival hunted like prey and worse – it was depravity and horror that even our worst nightmares couldn’t conjure. Where once there were family portraits of smiling parents with their children – there are funeral notices. There are barely any traces of some of the victims. They were reduced to ash, like our ancestors at Auschwitz.
On a nearly daily basis the number of hostages increases – this is despite four being released as Hamas play a macabre psychological game by pretending to be “humanitarian” and one female soldier, Uri Megidish being rescued by the IDF during ground operations in Gaza.
Every day I think of the hostages. Every day I think of the victims and their families. I think of Thomas Hand who was relieved to hear his 8-year-old-daughter Emily was dead, rather than face captivity by deranged Hamas. I think of the soldiers slaughtered in their beds or beheaded and left strewn across the floor. I know this happened because I bore witness as many did because massacre denials forced the hand of our government to have to show the barbarity so it can NEVER be denied again. I think of Shany Louk, dancing and twirling before we all saw her body, legs broken, kicked and spat at on the back of a truck. I think of Hamid, a devout Muslim Bedouin from Rahat, his wife was pumped full of bullets. She was wearing a hijab. I think of Awad the paramedic. He was Muslim too. I think of the Thai workers and the tourists. I think of them all.
Those calling for an immediate ceasefire – and there are those like celebrities who mean well but calling them naïve is an understatement – need to understand that all a ceasefire does is give a license to Hamas to commit more murder. Hamas needs to be eradicated for all our sakes. Sorry Angelina Jolie, Drake et al – we will take our military cues from our Generals.
What happened on 7 October was a crime against humanity, of barbarity that would seem so unfathomable but is very, very real.
The blood of the victims cries out from the ground and their voices from the place in heaven reserved only for our martyrs. We will settle the score with the terrorists who committed the crime. We will not rest until all our hostages and remains are returned to us – and we include captive Israelis Avera Mengistu, and Hisham Al-Sayed, held by Hamas for several years and the remains of fallen soldiers, Hadar Goldin and Oron Shaul who fell during Operation Protective Edge in 2014.
For Zion’s sake we will not be silent. May the memories of all who were murdered be eternally blessed.
Moment Hamas attack Muslim father’s car – this is his incredible survival story
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 world needs to join not undercut Israel in a global war against evil
By Neville Berman
In 1979 two events occurred that would have serious long term unintended consequences for the world. The first was the fall of the Shah of Iran, and the second was OPEC unilaterally raising the price of oil from $12 to $30 per barrel. At the time Henry Kissinger, the American Secretary of State, remarked that “The camel traders have taken over the world.” Unfortunately, he did nothing to oppose OPEC. Let us look more closely at the effect of these two events.
From Bricks to Bombs. Obsessed with killing Israelis today, pre-revolution Iranians commissioned Israelis to design and build. Seen here is a brochure for Taj Towers in Tehran, 1977, designed by Aharon Doron. (Credit: Aharon Doron/ Courtesy of Archive Architecture Israel)
Before the overthrow of the Shah of Iran, Israel had an embassy in Tehran. There were direct flights between the two countries. One of Israels largest building companies, Solel Boneh, built many high-rise apartment buildings in Tehran. Israel bought oil from Iran. Everything changed in 1979 when Ayatollah Khomeini emerged as the Supreme Leader of Iran. He rejected outright all the values of democracy and human rights that are the basis of western civilization. Instead, he implemented a strict Shiite interpretation of militant Islam. He promoted the concept of martyrdom and the spreading of Islamic rule over the world. “Death to America” and “Death to Israel” soon became the slogans of the regime. Ever since 1979, Iran has brought nothing but destruction and poverty to every part of the Middle East. Iran is the world’s principal supporter of terrorism.
Changing Times in Tehran. Today, Iran screams “Death to Israel”, while in the 1970s, a brochure for Tehran’s Eskan Towers, designed by Moshe Bashan and built by Solel Boneh. (Credit: Gideon Nordman/Moshe Bashan and Amira Galile)
The organization of petroleum exporting countries known as OPEC was established in order to ensure that the oil exporting countries would be in control of the world’s oil market. OPEC would henceforth determine the amount of oil exported and the price. By limiting the supply of oil, OPEC created artificial shortages that resulted in additional massive increases in the price of oil.
One of the basic theories of economics is that demand and supply determines the price. The Sherman Act outlaws monopolies and price fixing. American oil companies succeeded in getting Congress to prevent the Department of Justice from ever applying the Sherman Act to OPEC. What followed was the largest transfer of wealth in the history of mankind. The major oil exporting countries in the Middle East would soon be transformed from some of the poorest countries on earth, to countries of fabulous wealth. While the world is facing deficits and inflation, the major oil exporting countries are wallowing in wealth and surpluses.
Saudi Arabia and Qatar are using their wealth to build Mosques and Islamic Cultural Centers all over the Western world. They are also financing the establishment of Departments of Middle Eastern Studies on all the major university campuses in America and Europe. All of these institutions have the common aim of promoting Islam and of undermining western liberal democracies. The Imans that control the mosques are preaching a non-stop tirade of hatred against Israel and the West. The American concept of freedom of speech has become a “get of jail free card” to disseminate hatred.
The results are clear: Jews are facing intimidation and even violent acts across the world.
The exponential growth of the Muslim communities across Europe and America are a direct threat to the culture and way of life in the countries that have welcomed them. The war against Hamas should act as a wake-up call to the civilized world to change its policies.
Threat to Society. France ordered the closure of a mosque in Beauvais, northern France in December 2021 following the Iman there “ targeting Christians, homosexuals and Jews” in his sermons. (Photo AFP)
Just imagine what an incredible place Gaza would be if the vast majority of its inhabitants were Jews. Gaza would be a thriving democracy with human rights for all its citizens. Freedom of religion, women’s rights, gay rights and the rule of law would protect minorities from discrimination and abuse. Top rate universities and hospitals would be developed. High-tech industry and tourism would flourish. Property prices would skyrocket and unemployment would plummet. The water shortage would be solved by building desalination plants and sewerage would be transformed into agricultural water that would be used by farmers using drip irrigation. The beaches would be packed with families enjoying life. This is what the Palestinians could have achieved when Israel withdrew from Gaza.
Instead, the Palestinians chose to depict themselves as victims and promoted a culture of terrorism and hatred. The image of young children in summer camps wearing make believe suicide vests and the subsequent brainwashing at schools run by UNWRA has resulted in what we are seeing today. The world needs to face the reality that Hamas is like a dangerous virus that has no positive benefits to offer mankind. All the hostages need to be freed.
Streets of Sderot. Hamas massacred more than 1,400 Israelis (a number equivalent to 60,000 Americans if counted per capita, 12 times 9/11), mostly civilians including elderly, women, and children.
In 1995, Samuel P Huntington wrote a book entitled “The Clash of Civilizations.” He predicted exactly what is happening now. If Hamas is allowed to survive, the world will be sanctioning behavior that is akin to barbarism. This is not just a war against Hamas. This is a war to prevent the resurgence of ISIS and Al Quada. This is a war against Islamic Jihad and Hezbollah, a war against the al-Aqsa Martyrs Brigade and the Muslim Brotherhood, a war against Boko Haram and every other murderous Islamic organization that threatens the civilized world. It is a war against individuals that support any of the above terrorist groups. Anyone with a sense of morality and human dignity should understand that Israel needs the full support of the civilized world. Israel will do its part to ensure that Hamas is defeated. Now is the time for countries to step up and support Israel. Iran needs to be held accountable for the funding, training and arming of the terrorist organizations that are destroying any hope of peace in the Middle East.
About the writer:
AccountantNeville 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).
Israelis respond to mobs burning Christian churches and homes in Pakistan after blasphemy allegations
By Jonathan Feldstein
Perhaps you have heard the news. Fires torching hundreds of properties. Entire households burned to the ground. Every personal belonging lost. Thousands of lives destroyed. The devastation has been unprecedented, and it will take years to rebuild that which can be rebuilt. But the personal tragedies and lives lost may never heal.
If you’re in the West, you may have heard about the tremendous loss in Maui, Hawaii. Wildfires have left a trail of death and destruction. As horrible as that is, it is not what I am writing about today.
Christians look at burnt furniture and other things outside their homes vandalized by an angry Muslim mob in Jaranwala in the Faisalabad district, Pakistan, Thursday, Aug. 17, 2023. (AP Photo/K.M. Chaudary)
While Maui was burning in what was an act of God, Christian communities in Pakistan have been burning, torched to the ground, not as an act of God but as an act of evil. Trumped up charges of “blasphemy” by Moslems in Pakistan against two Christian men was the spark that set off a widespread rampage of attacks by Moslems against their Christian neighbors that have lasted nearly a week as of this writing.
In Pakistan, charges of blasphemy can carry a death penalty. Blasphemy can be as simple as “embarrassing” Islam. Sometimes, mobs of people take this Pakistani Islamic justice into their own hands. So much for the religion of peace.
For days, an out-of-control pogrom has been carried out against Christians, with law enforcement turning a blind eye as if there’s any legitimate excuse for that. Dozens of churches have been ransacked, looted, and burned to the ground. Hundreds of Christian homes were also attacked, looted, and burned. Personal belongings that were too big to loot were simply dragged to the street and burned. Countless bibles have been burnt, desecrated, destroyed.
A boy comforts a woman weeping after her home was vandalised by a Muslim mob. (KM Chaudary/AP Photo)
All this, displaced thousands of lives, entire extended families forced to flee their homes, their communities, seeking shelter anywhere they could, even makeshift tents in open areas. Not that this would make them safer from the attacks of their Moslem neighbors. It just made them more vulnerable, marked, open to assault. Just less to burn. They fled with the clothes on their backs, and now have nothing left, and no homes to return to.
Pakistan Muslim Mob Attacks Christian Churches, Property Over Blasphemy Charges
Even if they could return, how will they ever move back, even if their homes are rebuilt? How will they ever feel safe among the Moslem neighbors whose hate was ignited against them and their faith? But they are stuck in Pakistan, with nowhere to go, as second-class citizens, tolerated but not really accepted. The targets of evil hatred whenever there’s an excuse. There’s no recourse.
A few years ago, I posted a video on YouTube of a Christian man in Pakistan being lynched and burned to death. Apparently that – the posting not the lynching and burning – violated their “community standards” against violence. Earlier this year, because of that, YouTube blocked me. When I “appealed”, I got an immediate automated response that my appeal was rejected. I laughed at first, realizing that YouTube houses no shortage of gratuitous violence, but when it comes to posting real crimes to highlight the evil amid which Christians have to exist there, that’s too much for their sensitive community standards. I hesitate to post videos I have seen of the most recent violence, but they are real and horrific.
Unlike Maui, Pakistani Christians have no insurance. No state of federal money to rebuild. Police are not comforting, much less protecting the victims in Pakistan. Pakistani Christians exist in the crosshairs of a society that’s simply unsafe. They are tolerated, sometimes, but not protected. Second class? How about seventh class.
A Christian man emerges from a vandalised home in Jaranwala. (KM Chaudary/AP Photo)
In the past week, many of my Pakistani Christian friends have turned to me, in Israel, for prayers and support. They are heartbroken, devastated, and scared. Yet as much as they fear for themselves and their families, they are trying to help those most in need, as good Christians should for one another. However, for them, simply reaching out to me, an Orthodox Jew in Israel, could trigger more violence, even lynching. As much as they may be “tolerated” in Pakistan, Israel and the Jews are the enemy.
They also know I’ll help, because I care, and because I did a year ago when they were struck by floods of Biblical proportions and Christians suffered because of their status far more than average Moslem Pakistanis. Seventh class.
Christians remove burned furniture and other items from their vandalised homes. [KM Chaudary/AP Photo]
I undertook this effort then on behalf of the Genesis 123 Foundation which exists to build bridges between Jews and Christians and Christians with Israel in ways that are new, unique, and meaningful. This includes looking out for persecuted Christians, specifically in the Middle East. A year ago, after unprecedented flooding across Pakistan, we stepped up to raise funds to support our Pakistani Christian friends who suffered even more of the devastation than the Moslem population. Unprecedented. An organization of Jews and Christians, run by an Orthodox Israeli Jew, reaching out to protect Christians in Pakistan. It was a blessing to do so, and it was our responsibility, to be a blessing to the families of the world.
Church on the outskirts of Faisalabad was burned. [Ghazanfar Majid/AFP]
As entire families in Pakistan have been devastated, we launched a campaign again, urgently, to provide any funding, as generously as possible, so we can help with the rebuilding. Our partners and friends are reliable and have the highest integrity. One is asking for a meagre $20,000. The truth is even $120,000 is not enough. But that’s our goal. We want the impact to be felt as widely as possible because there are and will be needs far beyond the physical and tangible losses.
I pray that Jews and Christians, and anyone of good conscience, will step up and join the efforts. Maui is horrible. My heart is pained for all the loss. But as much as that’s true, there’s no aid for Pakistani Christians. Not until now.
About the writer:
Jonathan Feldstein - President of the US based non-profit Genesis123 Foundation whose mission is to build bridges between Jews and Christians – is a freelance writer whose articles appear in The Jerusalem Post, Times of Israel, Townhall, NorthJersey.com, Algemeiner Jornal, The Jewish Press, major Christian websites and more.
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).
From bicycle saddle to hospital bed – some existential thoughts about self and country
By David E. Kaplan
On Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel’s Independence Day) on the 5th May, I went for a ride on my bicycle. Turned out – a regrettable mistake. In a quiet side road, I had a serious accident and ended up in Meir Hospital, Kfar Saba. I am recovering well but I ask the question:
“What at the last corner before the accident I turned right instead of left?”
Lying in my ward later that night following a general anesthetic stitch-up, I reflected on the poem of Robert Frost ‘The Road Not Taken’ and pondered literally and figuratively if, in the words of the poet:
“I took the one less traveled by”
Clearly then – inter alia – I would not be penning this prose!
But then I pondered beyond my bodily bruising and thought instead of the anatomy of the world whose condition too throughout history has either sored or soured dependent at critical moments when fractured futures or favourable fortunes could have gone either way and the destinies of people would have been quite different.
As I was reflecting in an Israeli hospital, I thought back to those past pivotal – some even existential – moments in Israel’s modern history, when disaster or salvation hung in the balance:
–WHAT IF on November 2, 1917, Foreign Secretary Arthur James Balfour had not written a letter to Britain’s most illustrious Jewish citizen, Baron Lionel Walter Rothschild, expressing the British government’s support for a Jewish homeland in Palestine – a letter that would eventually become known as the Balfour Declaration. In all likelihood, I would then not be lying in a ward of the seventh largest hospital in the Jewish state of Israel after 2000 years of exile.
Weighty Words. Lord Arthur Balfour and the letter that moved a dream towards reality.
– WHAT IF Rommel’s African Corp had not lost the Battle of El Alamein in 1942, leaving the German Wehrmacht free to steamroll northwards to Palestine? Again, possibly no Meir Hospital would have been established in 1956.
– WHAT IF Prime Minister David Ben Gurion had not demanded the unification of ideologically diverse Jewish armed forces during the War of Independence to forge a national army – the IDF?
WHAT IF? A British army recruitment drive in Tel Aviv during World War II. The big fear for the Jews before the Battle of El- Alamein was that Rommel would overrun Palestine.
– WHAT IF Israel had not taken out the Egyptian Air Force in the opening round of the 1967 Six Day War?
– WHAT IF Israel had not mounted Operation Thunderbolt in 1976 to rescue the Jewish hostages held in Entebbe airport following the hijacking of an Air France airbus A300 jet airliner? No Jew or Israeli plane would be safe anywhere. The message – don’t mess with us and expect you will get way with it. Jews will “NEVER AGAIN” be slaughtered with impunity.
‘Plane’ Truth. What if Israel had not rescued the Jewish captives held by Palestinian and German terrorists in Entebbe in 1976?
– WHAT IF there was not a young IDF commander of a tank battalion Avigdor Kahalani, like a biblical David that blocked a Goliath Syrian army from conquering the Golan Heights in 1973.
– WHAT IF Prime Minister Menachem Begin had not embraced the peace process with Anwar Sadat of Egypt or authorized the surprise bombing of Iraq’s nuclear facility in 1982?
– WHAT IF Israel had not mounted highly secretive operations to rescue the threatened Jews from Yemen and Ethiopia and absorbed one million Russian immigrants. In 1948, Israel had a Jewish population of 716,700; today over seven million, the largest concentration of Jews anywhere in the world! If the quest before had been for the restoration of Jewish sovereignty in their ancestral homeland, the quest today is to secure it for eternity.
Reaching a Crescendo. What if Israel had not neutralised Iraq’s nuclear ambitions in 1981 with Operation Opera.
ONE DOME TO ANOTHER
And then as I lay in the hospital bed digesting the distressing news of the Arab disturbances playing out at the Temple Mount / Haram al-Sharif, the compound housing both mosques, Al- Aqsa and Jerusalem’s most iconic Dome of the Rock, I reflected on exactly a year earlier when Hamas and its cohorts had unleashed over 4,300 rockets at Israel’s civilian population centers and pondered WHAT IF we did not have our IRON DOME?
Not designed to attack or retaliate, this “life saver” defence missile system developed by Israeli companies and financially supported by the US, proved some 90% effective in intercepting enemy rockets, greatly reducing the death toll. No less significant, this remarkable instrument of Israeli ingenuity also reduced the need for IDF ground operations in and around the civilian areas that terrorists use for launching missiles and rockets at Israeli civilians. Invariably ground offenses result in greater loss of lives. All this was avoided or averted because of the IRON DOME!
Special Relationship. Israeli Iron Dome anti-rocket system (right) and an American Patriot missile defense system are shown during a joint U.S.-Israel military exercise on March 8, 2018. (Jack Guez/AFP via Getty Images)
A MAJOR LEAK
And then finally before retiring to sleep at Meir, the need for the bathroom reminded me of one final WHAT IF, which at the time of its happening was lavatorialy inconsequential but decades later proved monumentally existential.
What do I mean?
For many years, U.S.-Israel military ties – so vital to Israel – were non-existent. From Israel’s creation in 1948 until the mid-1960s, US State Department and Pentagon officials argued against even providing American arms to Israel lest it provoke the Arabs to ask the Soviets and Chinese for more weapons, which in turn would stimulate a Middle East arms race.
U.S. policy fundamentally changed only after the 1967 Six Day War when France – Israel’s main supplier – abandoned the Jewish state and the US stepped in to give Israel a qualitative military edge over its enemies. This was all due to a successful meeting between Israeli PM Levi Eshkol and US President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 leading to an agreement to sell Phantom jets to Israel marking the change in relationship between the two countries and establishing the US as Israel’s principal arms supplier.
Meeting of Minds. One of the most important meetings in Israeli history was Prime Minister Levi Eshkol (left) meeting here with President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968 as the President’s Texas ranch, which established a warm relationship between the two countries which has stood the test of time.
Since then, Israel has never looked back.
All this however would not have happened, had LBJ not decided at a precise moment in 1942 to relieve himself at an airbase toilet.
A 33-year-old Representative from Texas, lieutenant commander Johnson on the 9th June 1942, boarded a plane called the Wabash Cannonball for a mission in the South Pacific. While the Wabash Cannonball was on a bombing mission, Johnson’s participation was as an observer to inspect and report back to President Roosevelt of Japanese troop movements over New Guinea. However, no sooner had the future US president boarded the B-26, nature called!
Toying with the decision to “hold it in” or go to the toilet and catch the next bomber, he chose the latter and alighted from the plane.
It was a history-altering decision.
After relieving himself, he then joined the crew of another bomber, the Heckling Hare.
LBJ was lucky.
The Wabash Cannonball was hit by enemy fire and crashed with a total loss of life, while a crippled “hare” made it back to base.
So to my list of Israel’s “What Ifs?”, I add:
Where would Israel’s relationship be today with regard to the US, had not a young Lyndon B. Johnson not had the desperate need to at the right moment to take a leak?
And so while Israel never looked back, my final thought was if only the driver of the car in Kfar Saba had ‘looked back’ – in her rear view mirror – before opening her door into which I rode!
The writer on a ride in northen Israel.
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 Chinese government’s violent oppression of the primarily Uyghur Muslim population in Xinjiang is no longer a secret. From forced sterilization of Uyghur women to the internment of millions in prison camps to the eradication and destruction of religious institutions, the Chinese Communist Party’s actions against the Uyghurs have been deemed worthy of the name genocide to many in the human rights community.
The ethnic Uighur population used to be the majority in China’s Xinjiang region
Many – but not all!
The United Nations, the very institutioncreated to “reaffirm faith in fundamental human rights,” is assisting China in its violent efforts to wipe out the Uyghurs by helping the CCP cover its tracks. These were the findings of a recent report inLe Monde about the efforts of UN human rights officer-turned whistleblower Emma Reilly. Reilly claims that prior to every UN Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in recent years, China has requested the names of Uyghur and other Chinese dissidents who were scheduled to speak. And despite this being explicitly forbidden by theUN’s own rules, the UN, according to Reilly, has made it a practice to share this information with Chinese authorities, who use it to harass the dissidents’ families who are still based in China.
It’s one thing for China to try to cover up its genocide; Chinaboasts a long history ofreprisals against human rightsactivists,Uyghursincluded. But it’s quite another thing for the body charged with protecting human rights to lend them a hand.
Reilly says she first discovered the practice in 2013, when China’s Geneva delegation requested confirmation that certain “anti-government Chinese separatists” were set to speak at the Human Rights Council. Listed individuals included, among others, Dolkun Isa, current president of the World Uyghur Congress.
Le Monde reports that Reilly suggested that the request be rejected, just as the UN had rejected Turkish demands regarding Kurdish activists. But leaked emails appear to show Reilly’s superior, Eric Tistounet, head of the Human Rights Council Branch of the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR), advising staffers that the names be shared with China because the meeting was public, and delaying sharing the names would merely “exacerbate the Chinese mistrust against us.”
The Uyghurs are the largest minority ethnic group in China’s north-western province of Xinjiang.
The UN in fact confirmed Reilly’s allegations in 2017, when the OHCHRacknowledged that it confirms attendees’ names with Chinese authorities who “regularly ask the UN Human Rights Office… whether particular NGO delegates are attending the forthcoming session.” So too, dida 2019 UN tribunal confirm “the practice of providing names of human rights defenders to the Chinese delegation.”
But while the UN has at times acknowledged this indefensible practice, it has simultaneously provided contradictory statements denying it. When asked about the allegations in March 2017, Tistounet dismissed them as “extreme right-wing” propaganda—a mere month after the OHCHR’sadmission that it did currently confirm Uyghur activists’ names with China. Two months later, in aletter sent to UN Watch, the OHCHR asserted that it “does not confirm the names of individual activists accredited to attend UN Human Rights Council sessions to any State, and has not done so since at least 2015.”
China is accused of committing genocide against the Uyghur population and other mostly-Muslim ethnic groups in the north-western region of Xinjiang.
Then, in an August 2017letter to Human Rights Watch, High Commissioner for Human Rights, Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein acknowledged that the UN “often receives communications from… China” with a list of individuals who the Chinese claim “represent possible threats to the United Nations.” Once UN security services determine the allegations are baseless, wrote Al Hussein, China is informed that its concerns are unfounded, and “no other information is transmitted to the State.” A UN judge, however, rejected Al Hussein’s assertions in 2020, stating that in 2017, the “OHCHR misrepresented the practice of giving names to a Member State’s delegation to ‘Human Rights Watch.”
Alarmingly, UN Secretary-General António Guterres is aware of the allegations; in 2018, his office ordered Al Hussein to “resolve” the dispute with Reilly, Le Monde revealed. And yet, since objecting to the practice in 2013,Reilly says she has been ostracized and “publicly defamed,” her career “left in tatters.” And despite beingrecognized as a whistleblower in 2020, she wasfired the day after the Le Monde story’s publication.
What Reilly’s reports reveal is that the UN is more concerned with appeasing China than with combatting the Chinese-led Uyghur genocide. China, meanwhile, continues to retaliate against Uyghur activists. In a 2019 witness statement regarding the OHCHR sharing his name with China, a Uyghur dissident, Dolkun Isa, revealed that he didn’t know where his 90-year-old father was, or if he was even alive. His motherdied in a Chinese detention center in 2018, aged 78.
Shockingly, world leaders are also aware of the practice. In 2019, UN Watch Executive Director, Hillel Neuer, sent letters to the Geneva delegations of the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Canada, Netherlands, France, Germany, and Sweden, detailing instances of Chinese dissidents’ names (some of whom are citizens of Western nations) being shared by the UN. Citing China’s history of retaliating against human rights activists, Neuer explained that “providing China or any other government with names of dissidents accredited to attend UN sessions in advance of the sessions is harmful and potentially life-threatening to dissidents and their families, particularly family members still in China.”
Satellite images show rapid construction of camps in Xinjiang, like this one near Dabancheng. Human rights groups believe China has detained more than one million Uyghurs against their will over the past few years in a large network of what the state calls “re-education camps”, and sentenced hundreds of thousands to prison terms.
Not one country responded to Neuer!
Dutch parliament too, is well-aware. In a January 2019letter to Dutch lawmakers, Foreign Minister Stef Blok noted both the OHCHR and UN Ethics Office’s admissions that the UN hands Chinese authorities “lists of names” of Chinese dissidents set to speak at the UNHRC. World leaders, however, have refused to confront this abomination.
For years and with total impunity, UN officials have aided China in committing one of the greatest human rights atrocities of our generation. It’s high time for world leaders to press the UN for answers and bring those responsible for such an abject betrayal of the UN’s guiding principles to justice.
History won’t judge them kindly for turning a blind eye.
About the writer:
Josh Feldman is an Australian freelance writer. His work has appeared in leading American, Israeli, Australian, and international publications, including Newsweek, the Sydney Morning Herald, the Jerusalem Post, the Age, and the Forward. Twitter: @joshrfeldman
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 South African Muslim Judicial Council and South African Jewry
By Adv. Craig Snoyman
MEA CULPA!
I spent the last couple of weeks trying to hawk this article to South Africa’s main-stream media but to no avail – maybe too hot to handle.
I sent the article first to the newspapers that had first published the raging issue distressing the Jewish community, then to the larger media houses and eventually to the South African Jewish press. Maybe the language was too strong or too emotive, but then religious issues generally are.
I confess my sin in advance – hence Mea Culpa!
While there was no media interest – and one can question the reasons why – I believe it’s an important issue that needs to be aired. So I took the article, dusted it off, spruced it up at little and here it is. Forgive me but this non-South African website, with a large South African readership, was at the back of the line.
While the issue is about the South African Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and South Africa Jewry, I believe it may well be of global interest. Anti-Israel voices have a habit of morphing into anti-Jewish voices. Ignoring incitement and hate-speech doesn’t solve problems. Incendiary cyber-messaging and vicious online-abuse isn’t going to stop on its own. Disinviting an Israeli-owned food truck from a Philadelphia food fair is not going to cause a stir unless the issue is aired. Inflammatory rabble-rousing demanding that a particular school, which has mixed Jewish-Muslim learner ratio have to debate the Israel-Palestine issue, while insisting that only a pro-Palestinian radical speaker participate, does not contribute to a climate of calm. The flood of antisemitic tropes – only some of them masquerading as anti-Zionism – can be anticipated to lead to violence against Jews in the streets; or BDS activists deciding that they won’t tolerate Israeli products in shops. Once antisemitic violence has happened, it can’t be undone. Unfortunately, this behaviour is not only expected, but is clearly foreseeable.
It was for this reason that South Africa’s Chief Rabbi, Rabbi Warren Goldstein extended an olive branch of peace to the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) and Jamiatul Ulama South Africa. He called on them, by all accounts privately and discretely, to sign a Joint Statement, in which they would publicly call on their respective constituents to respect each other as citizens of South Africa; and not threaten each other because of their differing views on the Middle East. What he was really asking for, was a public statement by the MJC calling on its constituents to stop harassing his flock and make the clear distinction between anti-Semitism and anti-Zionism.
It was a call stop the hate!
Call it out so that it will stop.
The Muslim Judicial Council took the proffered olive branch, broke it in two and then poked the Chief Rabbi’s eye with it!
It was not the MJC‘s constituents that were being harassed or intimidated. They could speak from a position of strength, and they did. The MJC unequivocally and publicly rejected the Chief’s overture and their rejection published in the national papers. They also went running to the Anglican Archbishop seeking him to agree that the offending eye should be plucked out.
Really?
Why does the rejection of a request make by a Jew to a Muslim require the sanction of a Christian?
Reacting to Rabbi. South Africa’s Muslim Judicial Council publicly and scornfully rejected the Chief Rabbi’s overture for tolerance and understanding between their religious communities.
The MJC – in further justifying their decision not to issue a joint statement – stated that:
“The stance by members of the South African Jewish Board of Deputies, headed by Chief Rabbi Goldstein, is diametrically opposed to our moral position that most of the freedom-loving people have adopted in so far as it refers to condemning the violence and apartheid policies meted out against Muslim and Christian Palestinians on a daily basis by the apartheid regime in Israel.”
Factually, the justification is incorrect. The Chief Rabbi has no official position in the South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD). The SAJBD is a separate independent body. The Chief Rabbi acted in his position as head of the Union of Orthodox Synagogues and as titular leader of the Jewish community. On several interfaith functions, where the MJC has participated as well, the Rabbi has acted in this capacity. It is therefore surprising, at the very least, that the MJC could make such a clearly fallacious allegation. But the statement goes further. There is an inferential blaming of the South African Jews for the actions of the regime in Israel. This skates very close to, if not on, a long-existing, well-worn antisemitic canard, that Jews can be denigrated simply because they hold the “wrong” position on Israel.
While the MJC added that it did not support or condone intimidation, threats or violence at any level and called on all peace-loving pro-Palestinian protesters to maintain the necessary discipline at all times, this was hardly the case and the Chief Rabbi was, and is, well aware of the turbulence that has racked and continues to rack his community. Apart from two reported physical assaults – one a Jew, allegedly by Muslims returning from a pro-Hamas rally and one in a shopping centre largely frequented by Jews – the threats of death (“Khaybar, Khaybar, the army of Mohamed will return”, “We’ll finish off Hitler’s work”) the other vocal abuse ( e.g. “Nazi’s” “Zio-Nazi’s”) are in a completely different class to the very vocal chant of “From the River to the Sea, Palestine will be free”. Virtually every Jewish personality in South Africa with a public profile was overwhelmed with vitriolic antisemitic (as opposed to Anti-Zionist ) comments on their social media sites. The spate of the vicious antisemitism that flooded social media may have died down, but it has not disappeared. There are still calls NOT to serve Jews, from certain shop-owners. Most, if not all of this, seems to have originated from the MJC‘s constituency. The ongoing call to boycott Jewish citizens because they are stereo-typed as supporters of Israel and the call for consumers to stop shopping at stores because they stock Israeli product, is also unabated. That the Chief Rabbi felt that the need to reach out to the Muslim leaders is understandable. One can be reasonably sure that these issues and perceived consequences, were raised by him in discussion. However, the MJC‘s bland response calling on “all peace-loving pro-Palestinian protesters to maintain the necessary discipline” does not adequately address the issue; and allows for simmering intolerance.
Sowing the Seeds of Discord. Inviting the conflicts of the Middle East into South Africa.
When one looks at the MJC‘s declaration, stating that they do not condone violence and intimidation, it does not address cyber-hate or ongoing threats to Jewish South Africans or even the relationship between Muslim and Jewish South Africans. Only the MJC‘s “peace-loving pro-Palestinian protesters” (does one hear of any other type of protesters?) are called on to maintain discipline. The issue of private individual conduct is not dealt with, nor is the aspect of on-line hate and other forms of specific ethnic harassment or ethnic interaction. The MJC could not have been oblivious to them. It issued a “catch-all” boiler plate statement to be wheeled out for all occasions.
Stocking Hatred of Jews. Demonstrators marching through the city centre in Cape Town on May 12, 2021 holding banners falsely accusing Israel of genocide in Gaza while ignoring the over 4000 rockets fired from Gaza into civilian areas in Israel.(RODGER BOSCH/AFP via Getty Images.)
The casual attitude taken by the MJC is confusing and a matter for concern. On the one hand its position seems to be: “Yes we acknowledge that there should be respect and tolerance between the different religions in South Africa” while on the other hand it states that “we cannot be seen to agree with you publicly on the issue of peace and tolerance, because then we would be betraying the Palestinian cause”.
These positions are a non-sequitur!
Can one not support peace and tolerance in South Africa and still support the Palestinian cause?
Can one say that one is obliged to refuse to sign a document supporting peace and tolerance because to sign it constitutes a betrayal of the “Palestinian cause”?
Can one say that the MJC‘s position is that the “Palestinian cause” is more important to the MJC than peace and tolerance between Jew and Muslim in South Africa?
Can one say that the MJC‘s position is that it is not necessary for the incidents of abuse of Jews by Muslims in South Africa does not need to be called out in an effective manner?
All of these propositions would seem to be justified.
The MJC then takes the matter a step beyond a domestic national issue of ethnic tolerance. Rather than address the issue directly, the MJC deflects and introduces foreign politics and “the Palestinian cause into the equation or can one say the Palestinian cause is made the totality of the equation?
How should one understand “the Palestinian cause” and “support for the besieged people of Gaza”? Does support for the besieged people of Gaza also include support for Hamas, an internationally recognised terrorist organisation, which rules the territory?
Quo Vadis? Chief Rabbi calls on Muslim religious leaders in SA to issue joint call for tolerance over Gaza conflict was totally rejected.
Do they support the firing of over 4 300 rockets toward civilian targets in Israel from the Gaza strip? The MJC is silent on the issue of the conduct of Hamas but embraces the noble Palestinian cause as “a dignified struggle that requires demonstrating the highest integrity and discipline”. Is Hamas viewed as being included within this dignified struggle? Is Hamas – whose charter declares it seeking the destruction of Israel – also part of the dignified struggle of the noble Palestinian cause which it embraces?
Where does one draw the line?
And why should this political opinion affect its conduct and attitude toward the safety of South African Jewry?
The MJC is aware of the opinion of its constituents in South Africa. Numerous rally posters called for “Free Palestine” nd “From the river to the sea, Palestine shall be free”. The MJC has not disassociated itself from these sentiments. So what is this noble Palestinian cause which requires a dignified struggle of the highest integrity and discipline?
Is it supporting one Palestinian state from the river to the sea, necessitating the elimination of the State of Israel?
Or is it supporting the existence of an independent Palestinian state, co-existing with an independent Jewish state of Israel?
Or should one then accept that the MJC support of the “noble cause” includes the violent overthrow of the Jewish state and condones the launching of rockets against Israel’s civilians?
Does the noble cause include Hamas’ fundamental position that Jews are to be killed wherever in the world they are to be found? By rejecting the offer of peace between South African Jews and South African Muslims in favour of the “noble Palestinian cause”, is the MJC stating that the noble cause includes the elimination of Jews in South Africa?
Is the MJC conflating antisemitism and anti-Zionism?.
The seemly-obligatory defamatory attack on the State of Israel by the MJC is revealing. The public and political posturing of the MJC could only be for public consumption for a simple and polite rejection to Rabbi Goldstein would have been adequate. It is clear that the MJC‘s battle is one to win hearts and minds of third parties. Why the need to falsely declare Israel an Apartheid state, which is a distortion of the facts as well as a distortion of the definition of Apartheid?
Clearly there is a battle to win over the Christian communities. It sought support from the Anglican Archbishop in order to solicit an unconditional Christian endorsement of the Muslim rejection. So the MJC went public; they rejected the Jews and sought the endorsement of the Christians.
The South African Jews, save for Chief Rabbi Goldstein, almost – unforgivably – kept quiet!
So again to spell it out. Israel is not an Apartheid state, even if it is a catchy jingle. Every Arab citizen of Israel has the same political rights as any other citizen of Israel. There was never an African party allowed to represent its constituents in parliament during the period of Apartheid. Robert Sobukwe was never offered a position in B. J. Vorster’s Nationalist cabinet. However, Arab parties have been in Israel’s parliament, the Knesset, since the inception of the State of Israel. Mansour Abbas and his Ra’am Arab Islamist political party are part of a new Israeli government, with Abbas an equal amongst equals. Any specific allegation of Apartheid can be easily refuted.
Distortion and Deception
Following the MJC emotively and publicly seeking the support of the Christian community with its inflammatory false allegations against Israel, it was left to the Chief Rabbi to warn South African Christians to be on guard and at least question what was being fed to them by the MJC.
Those well versed in what is happening in the Middle East know the true situation of Christians living under Muslim rule. While there are more Christians living under Israeli rule than there have ever been, the same cannot be said for Christians under Palestinian rule. In Palestinian Gaza, the Christian population had dropped from 5,000 to under 1,000 in 2018. From 5% of the population under the control of the Palestinian Authority, the Christians now constitute less than 2% and the Christian population in the disputed territories continues to decrease. In the “little town of Bethlehem” the beleaguered Christians once constituted over 80% of the population. Today, under the Palestinian Authority they now count at less than 10,000 or less than 10% of the city’s population and continues to decrease. This is the real “Christ at the Crossroads” and has nothing to do with Israel as the MJC would like South African Christians believe.
The Chief Rabbi sought to protect his flock from foreseeable harm and alleviate a climate of increasing hostility. He extended a gesture of peace. The MJC scorned it.
The Chief Rabbi sought to avoid the issue of religious sectarian hate, violence and intimidation arising in South Africa. The MJC chose instead to play politics, importing issues of the Middle East into South Africa.
The Chief Rabbi called for a statement of peace. The MJC chose the Palestinian cause over peace.
The Chief Rabbi opened his hand in peace. The MJC redefined the concept of peace and figuratively spat on his hand.
Resolute Rabbi. Chief Rabbi Dr Warren Goldstein who had earlier stood up to President Cyril Ramaphosa’s anti-Israel statement in the media, when asked for Muslim leadership to join him in calling for tolerance and non-violence was met with angered rejection.
It is time that the Muslim Judicial Council come forward and set out its position publicly, in the same way it did when it summarily dismissed Chief Rabbi Goldstein’s approach. Where does it stand and what lines are crossed if one calls for ethnic tolerance in South Africa? Similarly, having announced that it supports the “noble Palestinian Cause”, one should be able to understand if this a policy rather than a slogan. If support for a distant Palestinian cause is preferable over peace and tolerance toward fellow South African citizens who happen to be Jewish what then is the MJC‘s attitude toward Christians who are also supporters of Israel? Will they too be attacked or are they too large a group to be bullied as was the case with South Africa’s Chief Justice, who also called for peace in Jerusalem? Are they also to be sacrificed on the high altar of the Palestinian cause? The Muslim Judicial Council’s strategy of public rejection has a concurrent obligation – a reasonable explanation not simple slogans of “noble Palestinian causes”.
Talk policy, don’t mouth slogans!
About the writer:
Craig Snoymanis 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).
