05/11 Links Pt1: 'Barghouti's sweets' handed out at Nakba Day ceremony; Mr. Trump, on Jerusalem just do nothing ~ EoZ

From Ian:

PMW: Abbas' and PA's female role model: Mother of 4 terrorists serving life sentences

Abbas invited the mother of 4 terrorists to event in his office
Fatah leadership delegation visited her in her home
PA official, Governor of Ramallah, visited her in her home
Mother of terrorists nicknamed "The Oak Tree of Palestine" and "Khansa of Palestine" - reference to a woman in the earliest period of Islam who rejoiced when all four of her sons were killed in battles, as Martyrs for Islam
The current hunger strike held by imprisoned Palestinian terrorists gave the Palestinian Authority another opportunity to promote one of its female role models: Um Nasser Abu Hmeid.
Latifa Abu Hmeid (her proper name) is famous in the PA for being the mother of 4 imprisoned terrorists, all of whom are serving life sentences (their crimes appear below). She has joined the hunger strike in solidarity with her sons and the other imprisoned terrorists. A fifth son, a member of Hamas, was killed and is considered "a Martyr."
In the eyes of the PA, her fostering of 5 terrorists makes her uniquely worthy of honor. Abbas himself received her and other relatives of terrorist prisoners at his office last month (photo above), and a Fatah leadership delegation visited her at home.

PMW: Palestinian university names class after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi
"The Class of the Bride of the Coast - Martyr Dalal Mughrabi"

Palestinian university names class of economics and political science students after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi "The Class of the Bride of the Coast - Martyr Dalal Mughrabi"
Shabiba logo at graduation ceremony reads: "From the sea of blood of the Martyrs we will create a state"
Meanwhile, Fatah youth movement music video honors 4 terrorists:
Abu Iyad - Planner of Olympic Massacre - 11 murdered
Abu Jihad - planned terror attacks - 125 murdered
Marwan Barghouti - planned terror attacks - 5 murdered
Dalal Mughrabi - led murder of 37, 12 of them children
When Fatah's student movement Shabiba held its annual graduation ceremony at the An-Najah National University together with the student council last month, it included a class named after terrorist murderer Dalal Mughrabi. Mughrabi led the most lethal terror attack in Israel's history, a bus hijacking in which 37 civilians, among them 12 children, were murdered.
Fatah's Central Committee member Jamal Muhaisen spoke at the graduation and Fatah posted photos from it on Facebook. One photo shows a large banner at the event naming the economics and political science class after murderer Mughrabi:
Text on poster: "[Fatah's] Shabiba student movement The Martyrs' cell Annual graduation ceremony Class of the Bride of the Coast Martyr Dalal Mughrabi" [Official Fatah Facebook page, April 12, 2017]

'Barghouti's sweets' handed out at Nakba Day ceremony

Dozens of Im Tirtzu activists and other Zionist activists held the annual Nakba Day event which took place today at Entin Square at Tel Aviv University.
The event is meant to remind leftist and Arab students how good it is to live in Israel rather than elsewhere in the Middle East.
The Im Tirtzu activists waved Israeli flags and handed out booklets which were meant to debunk the lies of the anti-Israel narrative.
This year, a huge sign was raised which called the Arab Nakba (Arabic for catastrophe) a lie. The activists also distributed dozens of 'torteet' chocolate sweets, the same sweet convicted murderer Marwan Barghouti, the leader of the hunger strike among security prisoners in Israeli prisons. was caught eating. The film of Barghouti eating the sweets showed that he was cheating on the hunger strike.
Matan Peleg, director general of the Im Tirtzu movement, said at the event: "It is absurd to see what higher education institutions, which are funded by the Israeli taxpayer, do with that public funding they receive. The university must be kept from becoming a harsh hotbed of anti-Zionism."

Pizza Hut fires Israeli PR firm over prison hunger strike ad

Pizza Hut has apologized and fired an advertising firm responsible for an Israeli Facebook ad that mocked Fatah official Marwan Barghouti, the leader of a hunger strike staged by Palestinian security prisoners jailed in Israel. The ad on Pizza Hut Israel's Facebook page was deleted, and the parent company said in a statement that the post was "completely inappropriate."
Barghouti, 58, who is serving five life terms, called the hunger strike to pressure Israel to improve security prisoners' conditions. The strikers' demands include cell phones and family visits, among other things. While some 1,300 prisoners initially heeded his call, hundreds of them have quit the strike. According to the Israel Prison Service, some 880 prisoners are still maintaining the hunger strike, going on its 24th day.
On Sunday, the IPS released a video showing Barghouti secretly snacking on a candy bar.
Pizza Hut then published a Facebook post with a pizza box superimposed on Barghouti's prison cell with a caption asking if he would rather have broken his hunger strike with a pizza.

Spain: "Pacifist" Imam Arrested on Terror Charges

The New York Times once praised his moderation
Several months after the New York Times published its hagiography of Shashaa, he was arrested for physically assaulting his third wife, who was hospitalized with a broken nose and shoulder. "The attack was obviously very brutal," a hospital spokesperson said at the time. "What a man does with his wife does not concern the authorities," Shashaa said.
Spanish High Court Judge Eloy Velasco ordered Shashaa — who lives in a 10,000 square meter (108,000 square foot) mansion in Teulada-Moraira, a small coastal town on Spain's Mediterranean coast, with his four wives and 18 children — to be held in prison without bail.
Spanish authorities are now investigating the source of Shashaa's wealth. His mosque in Munich was shuttered in October 2015 due to financial difficulties, while the mansion he purchased in Spain in February 2015 is said to be worth more than half a million euros.
More than two weeks after Shashaa was arrested, the New York Times still has not reported on the fate of its poster boy for Salafist pacifism.

Controversy over Palestinian plane hijacker's planned appearance in Spain

The Spanish government –and the city of Barcelona—are under fire for failing to thwart plans for PFLP terrorist Leila Khaled to visit Spain to speak at a radical book festival that starts on Friday.
Israel’s ambassador to Spain Daniel Kutner told The Jerusalem Post on Thursday: “I hope the former airplane hijacker will not be allowed to set foot in Europe in general and in Spain in particular. I raised the subject of her scheduled participation in an event in a city managed venue with the higher authorities at Barcelona, conveying our position on the subject. “
Jordan-based Khaled is a convicted terrorist and member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). The PFLP has been designated by the United States and the European Union as a terrorist organization. Khaled hijacked the US TWA Flight 840 in 1969. A year later, she participated in the hijacking of EL AL Flight 219.
Fadi Hassan, president of the Basque Country Palestinian Community, wrote a letter reminding the Barcelona Council that Leila Khaled is a terrorist. Hassan said that he believes Khaled does not represents Palestinian women or the Palestinian people. Hassan added that the invitation blocks peace and urged the Barcelona council to pull the plug on its support of Khaled.
Mariona Sòria, a spokeswoman for the city council of Barcelona, wrote the Post by email that, ”Mrs Khaled comes to Barcelona invited by Festival Literal, an independent event.. Barcelona City Council is not involved in the program of the festival and its not receiving her visit either. Festival Literal is considered one of the thousand of cultural events that Barcelona hosts during the year…The event has 12.000€ municipal subsidy, as much others in Barcelona.”
Sòria added that the State controls security anti-terrorism polices, not municipalities.

Trump Admin Still Considering Moving U.S Embassy in Israel to Jerusalem

The Trump administration is disputing Israeli media reports claiming that the president is no longer committed to moving the U.S. embassy in Israel from Tel Aviv to Jerusalem, which candidate Donald Trump vowed to do while campaigning for the presidency, according to U.S. officials familiar with the situation.
Reports emerged in Israeli media late Tuesday claiming that Trump was about to walk back one of his campaign promises: Relocating the U.S. embassy in Israel to Jerusalem, a move that officially would recognize the ancient city as Israel's capital.
While U.S. law has long mandated the embassy be moved to Jerusalem, presidents going back to George W. Bush have issued executive waivers preventing the law from being implemented. Pro-Israel insiders had speculated that Trump would not reissue the waiver when it expires next month, setting the stage for the embassy to move.
Pro-Israel officials in Washington, D.C. hoped that Trump would announce the embassy move when he traveled to Israel later this month. However, senior U.S. officials familiar with the matter told the Washington Free Beacon that this was never on the table and that no announcement will be made, a disclosure likely to further discourage Trump's pro-Israel supporters.
Trump administration sources confirmed to the Free Beacon that the embassy move is still under consideration, but that the process is in its infant stages.

Mr. Trump, on Jerusalem just do nothing

We are one step away from what might be a historic moment without us realizing it. Near the end of this month, President Donald Trump will visit Israel for the first time. Also at the end of this month, Israel will celebrate its 50th anniversary of the liberation and reunification of Jerusalem. At the same time, President Trump will have to decide whether or not to execute the “Jerusalem Embassy Act”.
This 1995 legislation that was approved by the vast majority of Congress says the following:
(1) Jerusalem should remain an undivided city in which the rights of every ethnic and religious group are protected
(2) Jerusalem should be recognized as the capital of the State of Israel
(3) The United States Embassy in Israel should be established in Jerusalem
Although the wording clearly mandates the embassy should be relocated from its current position in Tel Aviv, Presidents Obama, Bush and Clinton broke their campaign promises and signed waivers to suspend this act every six months during their terms, for a total of 36 waivers so far. The Washington establishment had told them that recognizing Jerusalem as Israel’s capital would harm the peace process. None of the three former presidents executed the “Jerusalem Embassy Act”, nor did they bring peace.
Many US presidents have launched Middle East peace initiatives during their terms, including Obama, G.W. Bush, Clinton, H.W. Bush, Reagan and Ford. All of the initiatives collapsed. Peace was only made when the two sides sat down together without using brokers, namely the peace deals with Jordan and Egypt. Not only did those respected US presidents not make history in the Middle East, they also failed to do right by Israel.

IDF accuses B’Tselem of ‘manufacturing’ conflicts

In a rare move, the army’s spokesperson lambasted the Israeli human rights group B’Tselem on Wednesday for publishing a video of an IDF officer guarding outside the a West Bank settlement, which he said was filmed purely to “manufacture an incident.”
In the video in question, one of the organization’s Palestinian photographers and two other people approach the officer and his soldiers, who tell the three men to stay back. There is then a brief, mostly verbal altercation between the photographer and the officer, before the soldiers detain him and apparently use tear gas to force the other two men to leave the area.
In a Facebook post, IDF Spokesperson and Head of the Manpower Directorate Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz defended the officer’s actions and accused B’Tselem of “provocation.”
Almoz did not mention the group by name, referring to it only in the second person, but the description of the video left no doubt as to the post’s subject.
“There’s a difference between filming an event as it happens and manufacturing an event by arriving somewhere with a camera,” Almoz wrote.

Israel asks US to nullify UNSC settlement resolution

The Israeli Foreign Ministry appealed this week to US Envoy to the UN Nikki Haley to nullify Security Council Resolution 2334 which calls for an end to settlement construction while simultaneously declaring them illegal, both in the West Bank and eastern Jerusalem.
The issue was just one in a series of requests made to Haley, in an effort to garner American support in implementing a number of changes vis-a-vis the world body’s treatment of Israel.
Another central request put forth by the Israelis is to reduce the activities of UN bodies which dedicate significant, oftentimes disproportionate, resources and efforts toward the Palestinian issue. To this end, Israel has asked to slash the budget and manpower intended for such activities.
Moreover, the American are also asked to reduce the number of discussions held by the Security Council on Israel, which are currently held once a month.
Since taking on her new role, Haley has managed to earn the trust of many Israel supporters and build a reputation as one of Israel’s staunchest advocates on the international stage through a series of public speeches and declarations admonishing the UN for its bias treatment against the country.

Civil rights organization challenges Netanyahu to draw map

A few days before Independence Day, the Israeli left challenged Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu by asking him to draw the borders of the state. The Association for Civil Rights in Israel is ostensibly behind the seemingly simple demand. Arutz Sheva spoke with the director-general of the organization, attorney Sharon Avraham-Weiss.
At the outset Avraham-Weiss wished to stress that her organization is an human rights organization and its demand that the Prime Minister draw the map of the State of Israel stems from human rights considerations and not from any political reasons whatsoever.
"It needn't be a demand by the left or the right; we are a human rights organization, and as a human rights organization we think that one of the bars that needs to be set is borders for each country in order to create certainty," she says, adding that there are two principles that are indisputable: One is that defined sovereign borders are necessary for the conduct of a sovereign state, and the other is that Israel has been operating for fifty years without defined sovereign borders, "and this raises many questions, one way or the other. We therefore asked for clarification."
So far a response has not been forthcoming from the Prime Minister's Office to the intriguing inquiry that contains ramifications far beyond the drawing of a map. Asked what her organization's response would be if Netanyahu answers that the Israeli border crosses into Jordan, Avraham-Weiss replied, "It has implications, and as a human rights organization, I am not talking about solutions, but the significance to creating certainty would be clear.

There are no settlements, Israel’s new envoy to Brazil says

Israel’s new ambassador to Brazil, whose nomination replaced that of a former settler leader rejected by Latin America’s largest country, declared that the Jewish state does not have settlements in the West Bank.
Yossi Shelley, a Likud party activist and former businessman, assumed the ambassador position in January, putting an end to a year-long diplomatic standoff.
“Israel has no settlements, but areas under war,” Shelley said Tuesday during an interview with O Globo newspaper, the first of his term. “We do not recognize the occupation, as journalists and politicians say, but rather the international law. Of course we want to solve the problem.”
Brasilia took several months to rebuff ex-settler leader Dani Dayan as Israel’s choice to succeed Reda Mansour, a much criticized strategy of former President Dilma Rousseff, whose Worker’s Party had an openly anti-Israel platform. Rousseff was impeached and removed from office in August.

PreOccupiedTerritory: Israelis Are The New Nazis? But We Palestinians LIKE Nazis By Haj Mohammed Amin al-Husseini, Grand Mufti of Jerusalem (satire)

One of the key characteristics of a compelling political narrative is clarity: clear goals, clear demands, and a clear articulation of those goals and demands. But today’s Palestinian Arabs, and their supporters all over the world, compromise the clarity and justice of our noble cause by drawing analogies between the Nazis and Israel. They forget that we allied ourselves with the Nazis, and that I, as a leader of immense stature of the Palestinian national cause, repeatedly expressed my desire for the implementation in Palestine of a “Solution” along the same lines as the Nazis had for Europe’s Jews. It compromises our clarity.
We need not succumb to the perception that grew out of the unfortunate results of the Second World War, namely that Nazis are bad. We love Nazis! They were our friends! If there is one thing Mohammed Amin al-Husseni knows how to do, it is recognizing others’ loyalty (well more accurately, sniffing out alleged disloyalty, which I then punish without compromise). And the Nazis were as loyal to our cause as they could be. So please, stop confusing the issue by calling Israelis Nazis. You hurt me by identifying our enemy with some of the closest allies the Palestinian national movement ever had.
Remember, there were countless former Wehrmacht officers who helped train the Arab armies coming to our rescue after the Jews declared a state. Talk about biting the hand that feeds you. If we believe our cause is just – and it has to be, given that the Jews, the enemies of humanity, oppose it – then we must not apologize for the way it is prosecuted, and we must not sow perplexity by reversing our admiration for, and desire to emulate, Nazis and their accomplishments vis-à-vis Jews.

Jewish population in Jerusalem up 174% since 1967 reunification

Jerusalem's Jewish population has dramatically increased since the city's reunification in 1967, Israel Hayom learned Wednesday. The population grew by 174% from 1967 to the end of 2015 -- from 197,700 to 542,000 Jews, data shows.
According to data provided by the Jerusalem Institute for Policy Research, the total population in the capital reached 865,700 at the end of 2015, twice the population of Israel's second-largest city, Tel Aviv-Jaffa. In 2015, approximately 24,000 babies were born in Jerusalem, comprising 13% of all babies born in Israel. The average number of children per family in Jerusalem is 3.9, compared to the nationwide average of 3.1 and the Tel Aviv-Jaffa average of 2.2.
The fertility rate in Jerusalem over the past few years has increased among Jews, while decreasing among Arabs. In 2015, the number of children per Jewish family in Jerusalem averaged at 4.3, whereas in the city's Arab sector the number of children per family averaged 3.2.
"The growth in the Jewish sector reflects the growth of the ultra-Orthodox and religious communities, while the decline in the Arab sector mainly reflects modernization," said Yair Assaf-Shapira, a researcher at the institute.

Hamas plotting major revenge attack, defense officials say

Hamas is stepping up its efforts to carry out a major terrorist attack in Judea and Samaria to avenge the killing of one of its top operatives in the Gaza Strip, defense officials told Israel Hayom Wednesday.
Mazen Faqha was killed in mid-March in what Hamas said was a Mossad assassination. Hamas has vowed to avenge Faqha, even going as far as directly threatening top Israel officials, including Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman and IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Gadi Eizenkot.
The military and Shin Bet security agency have been following the group's efforts very closely, and have stepped up their counterterrorism efforts across Judea and Samaria. Israeli authorities have arrested a number of terrorists operating under explicit instructions from Gaza to carry out attacks, mainly abductions and mass-casualty attacks.
Faqha was a close associate of Hamas leader in Gaza Yahya Sinwar, and it is believed Sinwar personally instructed the group's military wing, the Izzedine al-Qassam Brigades, to increase it efforts to exact revenge on Israel.

Shin Bet nabs 6 Islamic Movement members in Israel operatives

The Shin Bet (Israel Security Agency), in collaboration with the the national unit for international interrogations, detained and interrogated six operatives belonging to the group Islamic Movement in Israel in late March and early April, it was cleared for release on Thursday.
Among those arrested was a senior member of the movement, Suleiman Agbaria, who served as the movement's director. Other suspects arrested by the Shin Bet were named as Suleiman Ahmad Mustafa Agbaria, Mustafa Ali Diab Egbarieh, Muhammad Harbi 'Abed Zabta Mahajna, Fuaz Hassan Yusuf Agbaria and Mahmud Ahmad Mahmoud Jabarin. All of those arrested were from the northern Arab city of Umm al-Fahm. Musa Muhammad Hamdan Salameh, a resident of Jabel Mukaber in east Jerusalem, was also detained.
An additional 20 people were also interrogated over the course of the investigation, including the founder of the movement, Omar Muhammad Ahmed Gripat, a resident of Beit Zarzir.
In November 2015, Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman ruled that the northern branch of the Islamic Movement was an unlawful association and released warrants to crack down on organizations and entities that operated on behalf of the movement in Israel. The Islamic Movement has been defined as a terror organization by Israel since it introduced a law battling terrorism in November of 2016.

Palestinian man indicted for murder of British student on Jerusalem train

Prosecutors on Thursday indicted a Palestinian man at the Jerusalem District Court for the murder of a British exchange student in a stabbing attack on Jerusalem’s light rail last month.
In the terror attack, Jamil Tamimi allegedly stabbed to death 21-year-old Hannah Bladon, who was in Israel as part of a study abroad program at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem.
According to the indictment, the 57-year-old Tamimi, who has a history of mental problems and had previously attempted suicide, set out on the morning of April 14 from a hostel in the northern Arab-Israeli village of Kaukab Abu al-Hija for Jerusalem, where he purchased a knife.
Tamimi, from the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Ras al-Amoud, had called his sons that day and sought to visit them at the family’s home, but was rebuffed and told that the family wanted no contact with him, in part because he had been convicted of sexually abusing his daughter.
At this point, he is alleged to have decided to carry out a stabbing attack.

Arab-Israelis stage ‘Day of Catastrophe' rally at Tel Aviv University

Arab-Israelis held a rally Wednesday afternoon commemorating "Nakba Day" at the entrance to the University of Tel Aviv.
The Nakba, translated from Arabic to mean "catastrophe," is the Palestinian narrative following the establishment of the state of Israel in 1948.
Yom an-Nakba, or “Day of the Catastrophe” is observed by Palestinians and Arab-Israelis as the day where an estimated 700,000 people became refugees following Israel's War of Independence fought almost 70 years ago.
Riziq Salman, a student at Tel Aviv University, said that “the event started following the declaration of the Nakba law."
"The goal of the law," he continued, "was to silence the Palestinian narrative and try to paint the picture as if the whole Palestinian narrative is based on a lie.”

We saved Hamas leader's life, says Israel ex-prison chief, dismissing strike complaints

When Orit Adato was tapped in mid-2000 to become Israel’s prison commissioner, there were 600 Palestinians serving time for security-related offenses. By the time she left her post for retirement three years later, the jails she oversaw were filled with thousands of security prisoners, products of the Second Intifada.
One of the prisoners to enter the system at that time was a Palestinian terrorist named Marwan Barghouti, sentenced to five life terms for orchestrating a series of deadly attacks on Israelis. In the years since, Barghouti has led a number of hunger strikes, culminating in an ongoing one launched last month by more than 1,000 inmates, the largest Palestinian hunger strike ever.
Barghouti says the strike is to protest “inhumane” conditions in Israeli jails, including medical negligence, solitary confinement, imprisonment without a trial, and a lack of family visitation rights.
But Adato, who spoke to The Times of Israel in her central Israel hometown of Shoham, said it was simply not true that Palestinian security prisoners suffer inhumane conditions. Indeed, the contention made her visibly upset.
“The conditions are very humane. They are being supplied with all their needs — food, clothing, medical treatment… They are getting better conditions than any other terrorists in the world,” she said, later allowing that a few Scandinavian countries might be better.

Arab-Israel MK fasts in solidarity with hunger-striking terrorists

Joint List chairman Ayman Odeh joined the Palestinian prisoners’ hunger strike for a day on Thursday, while in a protest tent in Nazareth.
“I joined the strike in identification with the struggle of the political prisoners in order to help increase awareness in the general public in the country for the just and basic demands of the prisoners,” Odeh said.
More than 1,000 Palestinians, serving time for terrorist offenses, have been on strike for several weeks, calling for better conditions. The strike is being led by Fatah’s Marwan Barghouti, who was convicted of murdering four Israelis and a Greek monk, as well as of one count of attempted murder. Cabinet ministers have accused Barghouti of leading the hunger strike to bolster his political standing as a potential successor to Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas. Barghouti was recently caught eating cookies and chocolate in his cell at Sharon Prison.
According to Odeh, among all Palestinian prisoners, there are 300 minors and 700 in administrative detention.

This is how Arabs teach their children to destroy Israel

Special footage received by Channel 20 from the Center for Near East Policy Research gives viewers a glimpse into the classrooms and hallways of UNRWA schools.
"I am in favor of stabbing attacks, because they scare Jews," Ahmad Diamiya, a student at an UNRWA school, told his interviewer.
"We are fighting the Jews so we can get our land back, and we fight using terror attacks such as stabbing, ramming, shooting, and stone throwing," another student said.
Mohammed Qashur of Jerusalem's Shuafat neighborhood said, "I am in favor of stabbing attacks, and I support anyone who stabs them (the Jews). I am thinking of stabbing them, and I want to be a halal (shahid)."
In UNRWA's Lata school, near Shechem (Nablus), the teacher can be seen indoctrinating the children on the subject of "Palestine's" ideal future borders - which do not include a place for Israel.
Leading the students in a chant, the teacher says, and the students repeat after her, "Arab Palestine from river to sea!" and "Return Haifa and Akko (Acre)!"

Hamas says it caught assassin of top terror mastermind

Hamas on Thursday announced that it arrested a man who it said assassinated one of the group’s top terror masterminds in March. The Islamist group claimed the man confessed to acting on orders from Israel, and indicated he would face execution.
“We announce to our people and nation that we discovered and arrested the direct killer of the martyr Mazen Faqha,” newly elected Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh said at a press conference outside Faqha’s home in Gaza, which was also attended by Hamas Gaza chief Yahya Sinwar.
“The murderer admitted in detail that he carried out the orders of the officers of the Zionist security services. He made a clear, detailed and comprehensive confession about this crime,” Haniyeh said.
Haniyeh did not identify the suspected killer, but said more details would be revealed in the coming days.
Faqha was killed in the garage of his apartment building on March 24.
Hamas has said the gun used to shoot Faqha had a silencer, allowing the killer to escape unnoticed. It has said the professionalism of the shooting indicated that Israel was behind the hit.
“What the enemy did was a painful strike in terms of strategy and security,” Haniyeh said.

Palestinian Football Association Holds Tournament Named After Terrorist While Demanding Israel's Removal from FIFA

During the international soccer governing body Fédération Internationale de Football Association’s annual congress, a tournament named after the terrorist responsible for the murder of 125 Israelis took place under the auspices of the Palestinian Football Association – the same group that is demanding Israel’s FIFA membership be revoked.
Israeli NGO Palestinian Media Watch, citing the official Palestinian Authority daily Al Hayat Al-Jadida, reported on Monday on the start of a soccer tournament named after Khalil Al-Wazir, otherwise known as Abu Jihad, the co-founder of the Fatah party and an architect of the first intifada. As the head of the PLO’s military wing, Abu Jihad planned multiple terror attacks, including the infamous Coastal Road massacre in which a bus was hijacked and 38 passengers, including 13 children, were killed.
“The Jerusalem Al-Nasser club has successfully organized the Prince of Martyrs Khalil Al-Wazir [Abu Jihad] Championship for the 23rd consecutive year. … This is under the supervision of the Central Branch of the [Palestinian] Football Association and under the joint auspices of the Central Branch of the [PLO] Supreme Council for Sport and Youth and the Jerusalem Clubs Association,” the report in Al Hayat Al-Jadida reads.
The tournament comes just as FIFA bosses are gathering in Bahrain for the soccer association’s annual congress scheduled for Thursday. One of the items on the agenda was the PFA’s demand that the Israel Football Association be kicked out of FIFA for having football teams in the West Bank. Late on Tuesday Tokyo Sexwale, the head of the joint Israeli-Palestinian monitoring committee, decided that it was “too premature” to take any final decisions.

Jordan Can't Keep ISIS Out Of Refugee Camp

A gigantic refugee camp in Jordan has become an “imminent threat” after Islamic State cells started to emerge.
Some 80,000 people are trapped inside the Al Rukban refugee camp by the Syrian border after Jordanian military cut off humanitarian assistance last summer. ISIS militants at the camp “have whole weapons systems … small arms, RPGs, anti-aircraft,” Brig. Gen. Sami Kafawin of the Jordanian army told NBC News in an article published Monday.
“They consider the camp a safe haven. We consider it an imminent threat,” Kafawin told NBC News.
Authorities estimate as many as 4,000 residents, about 5 percent of the camp’s population, may be militants. The area has been struck by several attacks and almost daily gun battles after the government lost control, according to Kafawin.
The military abandoned the camp after seven border guards were killed and another 13 were wounded in an ISIS-claimed car bombing last June.
“Most likely they targeted this particular spot because they thrive on creating divisions within society and want to wreak havoc,” a security official told AFP after the attack.

Iranian Foreign Minister Zarif Congratulates New Hamas Chief, Vows Continued Support for Palestinian ‘Resistance’

Iranian Foreign Minister Mohammad Javad Zarif on Tuesday congratulated Ismail Haniyeh on his recent election as the new head of the Gaza Strip-ruling Hamas terrorist organization.
In his message, Zarif expressed hope that Haniyeh — the successor of Khaled Mashaal — would “foil threats and the conspiracies of the Zionist enemy and its overt and covert allies who target the unity of the Islamic world sowing discord and sedition to destroy the Palestinian cause,” the Iranian Students’ News Agency (ISNA) reported.
Zarif also, ISNA said, emphasized the Tehran regime’s “continuous support for the Palestinian people’s resistance.”
When Iranian officials use the word “resistance,” they are generally referring to violent terrorist tactics.
As reported by The Algemeiner last year, Iran has been making serious attempts to restore its relationship with Hamas. Shiite Iran was once a main backer — both financially and militarily — of Sunni Hamas, but ties soured following the 2011 outbreak of the war in Syria, when they found themselves on opposite sides of the conflict and Hamas was subsequently forced to abandon its Damascus command post.

Elliott Abrams: A Bitter Date for Iran’s Baha’i

May 14 marks the ninth anniversary of the Islamic Republic’s imprisonment, on trumped-up charges, of the Yaran, the seven-member group that traditionally governs Iran’s Baha’i. To Elliott Abrams, this event is far more significant than the sham presidential election that will be held five days later. (Free registration may be required.)
From the Iranian revolution in 1979 to this day, the [Iranian] regime has shown the Baha’i no mercy. The Iranian Baha’i community has faced continued oppression on the economic front and in the denial of educational opportunities. Last November, Iranian authorities shut down more than 100 Baha’i-owned businesses throughout Iran after those businesses were briefly shuttered by their owners to observe Baha’i holidays. In December and January alone, more than a dozen Baha’i students were kicked out of Iranian universities because of their faith. . . .
The unjust imprisonment of Baha’i continues, with new arrests by the Intelligence Ministry as recently as April. It is estimated that 80 to 90 Baha’i remain imprisoned in Iran solely due to their religious beliefs. The effort to smear the Baha’i and their religion continues as well, with thousands of anti-Baha’i articles running in Iranian media in the last twelve months. . . . Every year at this time, Baha’i organizations around the world try to draw attention to the plight of the Iranian community in general and especially to the imprisonment of its leadership. Inside Iran, any public demonstration or rally to demand their freedom would only result in more arrests. . . .

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