Roundup
Flotilla Report Slammed
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel and Jewish
defense groups slammed a U.N. Human
Rights Council report accusing Israel of
breaking international law when it inter-
cepted a Gaza-bound aid flotilla.
The report, which was released Sept. 22,
called the actions by Israeli naval com-
mandos when they boarded the Turkish-
flagged ship Marmara "disproportionate
and brutal." The commandos "demon-
strated levels of totally unnecessary and
incredible violence it said.
The international body must reject
Israel's version of the May 31 incident, a
council panel urged in its report, which
called for "prosecution against Israel for
willful killing and torture."
Nine Turkish citizens were killed in the
incident, in which one ship in a flotilla of
six tried to evade Israel's naval blockade of
the Gaza Strip.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu called the report "biased and
distorted?'
Israel's state inquiry into the flo-
tilla incident began its work in May and
reportedly is nearing completion. The
panel is headed by retired Israel Supreme
Court Justice Jacob Turkel.
A separate inquiry by the United
Nations was commissioned by Secretary-
General Ban Ki-moon.
The American Jewish Committee con-
demned the Human Rights Council report in
a statement issued Sept. 22.
"What's needed now is not an investiga-
tion into Israel's right of self-defense, but
one that examines the purpose of the U.N.
Human Rights Council," said AJC Executive
Director David Harris. "With each new
reflexive attack on Israel, including this latest
shameful report, the council makes pain-
fully evident the case for its built-in bias and,
consequently, inability to deal with the facts
as they are
"The fact that this report has been praised
by llamas, whose terrorist regime is the
reason for the Gaza blockade, tells you every-
thing you need to know?"
Turkish Foreign Minister Ahmet
Davutoglu called the report "extremely fair
and based on solid evidence. We appreciate
that. It meets our expectations?'
Turkey repeatedly has called on Israel to
formally apologize for the incident and to
pay restitution to the families of the victims.
President
Obama
10
Obama: Don't
Delegitimize Israel
WASHINGTON (JTA) —
President Obama said he
would not countenance
Israel's delegitimization
and called on the world
community to back
Israeli-Palestinian peace
September 30 • 2010
EN
with deeds and not just words.
"Many in this hall count themselves
as friends of the Palestinians, but these
pledges must now be supported by deeds:'
President Obama said Sept. 23, addressing
the opening of the United Nations General
Assembly session.
"Those who have signed on to the Arab
Peace Initiative should seize this opportu-
nity to make it real by taking tangible steps
toward the normalization that it promises
Israel," he said, referring to the 2003 Saudi-
sponsored plan that would offer Israel com-
prehensive peace in return for its withdrawal
to 1967 borders.
"Those who speak out for Palestinian
self-government should help the Palestinian
Authority politically and financially, and
in so doing, help the Palestinians build the
institutions of their state. And those who
long to see an independent Palestine rise
must stop trying to tear Israel down?'
The Obama administration has made
increased Arab support for the peace process
a central plank of its efforts to arrive at a deal
within a year. U.S. Secretary of State Hillary
Rodham Clinton has been making the case
in one-on-one meetings with Arab leaders at
the U.N.'s annual signature event.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu has said that efforts to delegiti-
mize Israel are a major obstade to peace,
and Obama made it dear that he adopted
this view.
"After 60 years in the community of
nations, Israel's existence must not be a sub-
ject for debate," he said. "Israel is a sovereign
state and the historic homeland of the Jewish
people. It should be dear to all that efforts
to chip away at Israel's legitimacy will only
be met by the unshakeable opposition of the
United States?'
'U.S. Behind 9 11'
NEW YORK (JTA) — The
United States arranged
the 9-11 attacks "to save
the Zionist regime
Iranian President
Mahmoud Ahmadinejad
told the U.N. General
Mahmoud
Assembly.
Ahmadinejad
After suggesting in his
Sept. 23 address that U.S.
officials at the highest levels were com-
plicit in the attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, he
called on the United Nations to establish
"an independent fact-finding group" to
investigate the attacks.
The U.S. delegation walked out of
Ahmadinejad's speech, as did all 27
European Union delegations, Canada, New
Zealand, Australia and Costa Rica.
"President Ahmadinejad today outdid his
usual odious hyperbole said the executive
director of the American Jewish Committee,
David Harris. "Before the entire world, a man
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whose title is 'president' only because he
stole an election and brutalized his people
confirmed that he is a leading 9-11 con-
spiracy nut. Astonishingly, he did so from the
U.N. podium, located not far from the site
of the Islamist terror attacks that destroyed
the World Trade Center twin towers, killing
nearly 3,000, nine years age
As is his custom, the Iranian president
also used his annual speech at the General
Assembly to lash out against Israel.
"This regime," he said of Israel, "which
enjoys the absolute support of some Western
countries, regularly threatens the coun-
tries in the region and continues publicly
announced assassinations of Palestinian fig-
ures and others, while Palestinian defenders
are labeled as terrorists and anti-Semites.
"All values, even the freedom of expression
in Europe and the United States, are being
sacrificed at the altar of Zionism?'
In a response to Ahmadinejad's speech,
the U.S. mission to the United Nations said
in a statement, "Rather than representing
the aspirations and goodwill of the Iranian
people, Mr. Ahmadinejad has yet again
chosen to spout vile conspiracy theories and
anti-Semitic slurs that are as abhorrent and
delusional as they are predictable"
In an interview the night before his
U.N. address on CNN's Larry King Live,
Ahmadinejad called Israeli Prime Minister
Benjamin Netanyahu a "skilled killer."
Hamas, Fatah Talk Unity
JERUSALEM (JTA) — Rival Palestinian
factions Hamas and Fatah met to continue
reconciliation talks.
Fatah, the party led by Palestinian
Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, and
llamas, the Islamist group that controls the
Gaza Strip, met in Damascus on Sept. 24.
The groups agreed to continue talks in
order to achieve reconciliation, according to
a joint statement. The statement said that
several disagreements had been resolved.
The reconciliation talks come against the
backdrop of Israeli-Palestinian peace talks,
which do not include llamas.
Religious Bias Bill
WASHINGTON (JTA) — Two Jewish U.S.
lawmakers have introduced legislation to
protect students from religious discrimi-
nation.
Sen. Arlen Specter, D-Pa., and Rep. Brad
Sherman, D-Calif, announced the introduc-
tion of legislation that would amend the Civil
Rights Act of 1964, whose Title VI prohibits
discrimination based on "race, color, or
national origin" to include religion as well.
'All students should be protected from
discrimination and harassment on the
basis of their religion as well as their race,
color, and national origin:' Specter said in
a statement. "We need to dose the loophole
that allows students to be harassed and
threatened because of their religion. The law
specifically forbids discrimination on the
basis of religion in virtually every other area,
induding employment and housing, and it's
about time it protects our students as well?'
A statement issued by Sherman's office
highlighted several incidents on college
campuses illustrating the need for the
legislation. In one instance, a University of
North Dakota student was harassed by fel-
low students with anti-Semitic slurs and
was shot at with a pellet gun.
At the University of California, Irvine, the
statement noted that a Holocaust memorial
was destroyed; posters have depicted women
in traditional Muslim garb saying "God bless
Hitler"; swastikas have defaced campus
property; and a Jewish student was told to
"go back to Russia where you came from?'
Gaza Bound Boat
ASHDOD (JERUSALEM POST) — The
yacht carrying Jewish activists that intended
to break the blockade on Gaza docked in the
Ashdod Port on Tuesday afternoon.
The Israeli Navy took over the Irene, a
yacht of Jewish activists headed for Gaza, on
Tuesday morning.
No violence was used in taking over the
boat, an Israel Defense Forces (IDF) spokes-
person reported, and the activists were
peaceful as well.
The IDF intends to deliver the humanitar-
ian aid on the yacht to the Gaza Strip.
Before taking over the ship, the navy gave
the yacht two warnings that it was breaking
Israeli and international laws. When the cap-
tain ignored the warnings, the ship entered
blockaded waters.
"It is an unfortunate fact that the Israeli
Navy has to be distracted from its acts of
preventing terror and weapons-smuggling
to Israel's enemies and deal with this kind of
provocation:" the IDF spokesperson stated.
Earlier Tuesday, an Israeli activist told
Israel Radio that two Israeli Navy ships had
escorted the boat carrying Jewish activists to
Gaza for half an hour on Tuesday morning
— and that more ships are on the horizon.
"The army established contact with
the captain and asked him where we are
headed," Rami Elhanan, who was aboard the
Irene, said.
"We said we are headed to Gaza and sailing
under the British flag," he added.
The Irene, carrying nine Jewish activists
from Israel and other countries, set sail from
Cyprus on Sunday.
Among the passengers were Holocaust
survivor Reuven Moskovitz, 82, of New
Shalom, Israel; Rami Elhanan of Israel, who
lost a daughter to a suicide bombing in 1997
and is a founding member of the Bereaved
Families Cirde of Israelis and Palestinians;
Caron Angier of Britain, biographer of the
Auschwitz survivor and author Primo Levi;
and Lilian Rosengarten of the United States,
Roundup on page 12
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