Category: Israel-MidEast Issues

Hamas “Spiritual Leader” calls Holocaust “a lie”

AP reports:
— “Hamas spiritual leader Younis al-Astal lashed out after hearing that the U.N. Relief and Works Agency, the main U.N. body aiding Palestinian refugees, planned to introduce lessons about the Holocaust to Gaza students.”
— “Adding the Holocaust to the curriculum would amount to ‘marketing a lie and spreading it,’ al-Astal wrote in a statement.:”
— “‘I do not exaggerate when I say this issue is a war crime, because of how it serves the Zionist colonizers and deals with their hypocrisy and lies,’ he wrote.”
— “Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri also objected to including what he referred to as the ‘so-called Holocaust’ in the lesson plan. ‘We think it’s more important to teach Palestinians the crimes of the Israeli occupation,’ he said.”

Gaza: Hamas repression of women continues

Jerusalem Post report on continuing Hamas repression of women in Gaza:

Hamas to female lawyers: Wear headscarf
— “‘Showing a woman’s hair is forbidden,’ the Hamas-appointed Halabi told The Associated Press. ‘We will not allow people to corrupt morals. This [dress code] will improve work in the courts.'”
— “Palestinian female journalist Asma al-Ghul… “said that many Palestinian women have noticed the presence of the police officers at the beaches and other sites”
— “She said that the talk in the Gaza Strip these days was about Hamas’s intention to impose the hijab on all  female school children from first to 12th grade.”

“Palestinian Taliban Arrest Palestinian Feminist. Government Promises Investigation” – by Phyllis Chesler

“Palestinian Taliban Arrest Palestinian Feminist. Government Promises Investigation” – by Phyllis Chesler
— “An Interview with Asma’a Al-Ghoul”
— “Asma’a Al-Ghoul is a Palestinian secular feminist who has written poignant, heartbreaking pieces about honor killings and women’s rights in Gaza”
—- July 5, 2009: Gaza woman journalist: Hamas “police” “accused me of laughing in public” – now gets death threats

Gaza woman journalist: Hamas “police” “accused me of laughing in public” – now gets death threats

Asma al-Ghul — ‘They accused me of laughing in public’
— Jerusalem Post reports: “A Palestinian female journalist complained over the weekend that Hamas policemen attempted to arrest her under the pretext that she came to a Gaza beach dressed immodestly and was seen laughing in public.”
— report continues: “The journalist, Asma al-Ghul, said that the policemen instead confiscated her passport. Since the incident, she added, she has been afraid to leave her home, especially after receiving death threats from anonymous callers.”
— “‘They accused me of laughing loudly while swimming with my friend and failing to wear a hijab,’ Ghul told a human rights organization in the Gaza Strip. ‘They also wanted to know the identity of the people who were with me at the beach and whether they were relatives of mine.'”
— “In a phone interview with the Dubai-based Saudi-owned Al-Arabiya news Web site, the journalist said that the policemen who stopped her belonged to the Hamas government’s Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice security force.”
— “The special force reports directly to the Ministry of Waqf Affairs and is said to be a copy of units that have long been operating in Saudi Arabia and Afghanistan.”
— “The Hamas government, according to local reporters, has refrained from publicly admitting that the force exists out of fear of being branded fundamentalist.”
— “The Hamas force consists of dozens of plainclothes police officers who patrol beaches, public gardens, restaurants, hair salons and coffee shops to make sure that males and females are not mixing together and that the women are dressed modestly.”
— “Ghul said that many Palestinian women have noticed the presence of the police officers at the beaches and other sites. She said that the talk in the Gaza Strip these days was about Hamas’s intention to impose the hijab on all female school children from first to 12th grade.”
— “She said she was astonished by the fact that the Hamas security forces were providing security to hotels that are frequented by women wearing miniskirts while at the same time targeting ‘common people’ who go to the beaches and public parks.”
— “Ghul said that Hamas has banned men in the Gaza Strip from swimming topless. ‘And as in my case, Hamas has banned women from laughing while swimming,’ she added.”
— “She and her friends were stopped by Hamas policemen while swimming in the sea. She said that the policemen confiscated her passport and laptop after accusing her of laughing loudly and appearing in immodest clothes in a public place.”
— “Two of her male friends were detained for questioning for three hours. They said the police officers beat them and abused them verbally before releasing them.”
— “Hamas security commanders initially said that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they were having a mixed party at the beach. Later, one of the commanders said that Ghul was stopped because she was not wearing a hijab while swimming. Another commander claimed that the journalist and her friends were stopped because they had been seeing smoking nargilas and partying in a public place.”
— “Islam Shahwan, spokesman for the Hamas security forces, said that policemen have been deployed at the beaches at the request of the Ministry for Waqf Affairs. He said the policemen’s task is to impose law and order and prevent harassment of families picnicking and swimming at the beaches.”
— “‘We are there for the safety of the people,’ he said. ‘We operate there to prevent men from harassing women. We’ve received many complaints about these negative practices.'”
— “Shahwan said that Hamas does not interfere with the way women want to dress. However, he stressed, ‘we must preserve our Islamic culture and traditions. If there’s a woman who wants to dress as she wishes, she must go to a private swimming pool and not to a public place.'”

Israel: Trial Brings Light to Treatment of Messianic Jews

(Israel) Trial Brings Light to Treatment of Messianic Jews
— CBN reports: “In 2005, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protestors invaded a Messianic Jewish congregation, overturned furniture and harassed the members for hours.”
— “Congregation Nachalat Yeshua (Yeshua’s Inheritance) in Beersheva planned a special baptismal service on Christmas eve in 2005, which that year coincided with the first night of Hanukkah (the Festival of Lights).”
— “But before the celebration ever got underway, nearly 1,000 violent protestors, who opposed their faith in Yeshua (Jesus), invaded the premises.”

— June 10, 2009: Trial of Chief Rabbi Begins

Sudan: New Links to Hezbollah and Hamas – IRD’s Faith McDonnell

Hezbollah and Hamas: The Sudanese Connection – by Faith McDonnell

— “perpetrating genocide on its own people does not by itself satisfy the ruling National Congress Party in Sudan. Stories have surfaced recently connecting Sudan with Hezbollah and Hamas. They give weight to numerous claims that the radical Islamist regime of Omar el Bashir in Khartoum is involved with terrorists around the world. Sudan’s genocidal humanitarian disasters have long been the focus of the Sudan policy of both the United States government and American activists. Sudan’s active role in global terrorism has not. But both deserve focus because both are methods by which Khartoum hopes to bring about an Arabized Shari’a state, an Islamized Africa, and eventually, a worldwide Islamic Caliphate.”