The Israel Defense Forces routinely gathers information on foreign, left-wing organizations that it believes are working to delegitimize the State of Israel, Haaretz has learned.
The Military Intelligence Research Division's Delegitimization Department was established as part of the lessons learned after the Mavi Marmara affair in 2010. As Haaretz revealed in 2011, the department focuses on studying the activities of anti-Israeli groups operating overseas, including some that promote sanctions on Israel.
Nine foreign nationals were killed when IDF commandos boarded the Mavi Marmara, part of a flotilla trying to break the embargo on Gaza, in May 2010. A tenth died in 2014, after being in a coma for four years.
As part of its activities, the Delegitimization Department gathered proof of Hamas violations of international law during 2014’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza.
Among the overseas organizations monitored by Military Intelligence are dozens affiliated with the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement, though groups with the same goals working within Israel are not monitored by the department. Such activity inside Israel was criticized in the past, due to its political connotations.
The BDS movement conducts campaigns aimed at promoting boycotts of Israel and persuading companies to withdraw their investments from the country.
The monitoring of every BDS-linked group is approved in advance by a senior officer in the research division, following a decision not to follow groups which have indirect contacts with Israeli activists.
The IDF has emphasized in recent weeks that it does not collect information on Israeli citizens. That is the job of the Shin Bet security service, which monitors Israeli citizens involved in what are regarded as delegitimization activities.
In the past, left-wing activists belonging to the BDS movement have reported being contacted by a woman from the Shin Bet who calls herself Rona. Re’ut Mor, a media consultant for the Joint Arab List, said in June that she was questioned by Rona after returning from a trip abroad. The questioning covered a flotilla that had attempted to reach Gaza at the time and her positions on the BDS movement, the IDF and Zionism.
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Overview
Joseph Massad is Professor of Modern Arab Politics and Intellectual History at Columbia.
Massad is vocal about his anti-Israel positions in his lectures at Cornell. Included in his opinions are that Israel has no right to be a Jewish State and the claim that Zionist leaders worked together with Nazi's during the Holocaust.
In 2011, a Jewish student claimed she was discouraged by a Barnard University professor from taking one of Massad's courses who informed her that partaking in it would be 'uncomfortable' for her, due to the extreme anti-Israel content.
Israeli are called settlers, occupiers and much worse. While the Palestinian Authority incites violence against Israelis, the media brings legitimacy to the terror.
The world is divided between people who believe Israel is the home of the Jewish people and people who believe Jews have invaded the land and forcibly expelled the true Palestinian people. Who is correct?
Let’s learn the truth about the history of the Israeli Palestinian conflict:
Media outlets such as CNN, BBC, CBS and many others have been telling a tragic story about Palestinians who were forced out of their homeland and into a harsh life in which they are refugees living under brutal oppression. The oppressors are the vicious Zionists, the many thousands of Jews who manufactured a story about a Holocaust in order to inhabit Palestinian land. The claim is that the Zionists have no claim to the land, having abandoned it over 2000 years ago. Bear in mind, there are those who say the Jewish people have no link to “Palestine” at all. These same people often refer to the Holocaust as the “holohaux” and who portray Hitler as a hero. When confronted by archaeological proof about the Jewish connection to Israel, they say that the Jews of today are not the same as the Jewish people who lived over 2000 years ago. Where are those Jews? Dead. Assimilated. The answers vary.
We deal with these false stories every day. We hear messages of hate and horrible anti-Semitism. We are called settlers, occupiers and much worse. While the Palestinian Authority incites violence against Israelis, the media brings legitimacy to the terror.
The Origin of Palestine
First and foremost, the land is Israel. Not Palestine. Let’s be clear about that.
There are claims that the land was never called Palestine. That’s not true. For a period of time, it was called Palestine. In this video, you will learn about the origin of Palestine – where the name came from and how the Arab nations originally responded to the name. We’ll give you a hint… they despised it!
Inventing the Palestinian People
Now you understand the origin of the name Palestine. You know that really the land is rightfully named Israel and it is the homeland of the Jewish people. There’s still a problem though. Who are the Palestinians then? If they aren’t native to Israel, where are they from?
Here’s the answer.
Misplaced Sympathy for the Palestinians
There is one final thing to address. If you watched both of the above videos, you now know that Arabs rushed to Israel in order to claim the land before the Jewish people could fully return to claim it. This means that when a significant number of Jews came into the land, there were Arabs already living there.
There are many claims which tell you that the Jews forcibly expelled the Arabs. The supposed event is called the “Nakba,” which means “catastrophe.”
What happened to the Arabs who were living in the land? Where did they go and what made them leave?
Here is that answer..
Palestine is a Tool Meant to Oppose Israel
Now that you understand what Palestine is and where it came from, we need you to take action. Please SHARE this article with others. Let people know the truth about Israel. There is no occupation. Jewish people cannot be settlers in their own land. Israel was never the home of the “Palestinian” people. Jerusalem is the capital of Israel and it CANNOT be divided or turned into a Palestinian state.
Sign the Declaration to Keep Jerusalem United
Jerusalem Must Remain the United Capital of Israel
I declare that Jerusalem is the eternal capital of the Jewish People and support all efforts to maintain and strengthen a united Jerusalem as the undivided capital of the State of Israel.
As Islamic terrorist organizations throughout the Middle East sink to new levels of brutality, the Palestinian terror group Hamas, which has killed hundreds of Israelis and launched thousands of rockets at the Jewish state, finds itself facing a threat to its rule in Gaza.
Over the last month, Islamic State-inspired jihadist groups in Gaza, who ironically argue that Hamas has been too lenient towards Israel and has failed to implement Islamic Sharia Law, have launched a campaign entailing both propaganda and physical attacks on Hamas.
A Salafi terror group that calls itself the “Supporters of the Islamic State in Jerusalem” recently threatened Hamas with a 72-hour ultimatum to release imprisoned Salafi extremists detained by Hamas or face attacks, after Hamas destroyed a mosque belonging to the group and arrested several of its members.
The Salafi jihadists followed up on their calls by launching mortar attacks on a Hamas base in southern Gaza and other attacks on Hamas security posts. Hamas has responded with a large crackdown, setting up checkpoints and deploying gunmen in Salafi strongholds.
“At this time, they (the Islamic State supporters in Gaza) are marginal, I don’t think they have the overwhelming public support that some of the recent headlines suggest,” Neri Zilber—a visiting scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy focusing on the Middle East peace process, with an emphasis on Palestinian economics and state-building—told JNS.org.
“There is ongoing public disenchantment against Hamas inside of Gaza,” said Zilber. “Their popularity did spike after the [last summer’s] war [with Israel], as a sort of ‘rally around the flag’ effect. But conditions inside of Gaza are still quite terrible and much worse than they were before the war.”
The presence of Salafi groups in Gaza is not a new phenomenon, with several such groups operating in the coastal enclave for years. Salafism is a fundamentalist movement in Islam closely tied to or used interchangeably with Wahhabism, which is a Saudi-based ideology that has inspired Islamic extremists groups like al-Qaeda. The word “Salafi” comes from the Arabic root Salaf, meaning “predecessors” or “ancestors.” Salafis believe in the strict interpretation of Islam that upholds the Prophet Muhammad and the early Muslims who fought with him as the truest form of Islam. While Salafis have been present in Gaza going back to the 1980s, they have only more recently become more organized and thus determined to wage violent jihad.
Like the Islamic State terrorists operating in Syria and Iraq, the Salafi jihadists in Gaza do not recognize national boundaries and instead call for a global Caliphate. While they do share Hamas’s goal of the destruction of Israel, they view Hamas’s ideology as too nationalist and narrowly focused on the Palestinian cause.
These Salafi jihadists are largely “indigenous groups who have grown discontent with Hamas’s rule and their more limited and nationalistic ideology,” the Washington Institute’s Zilber told JNS.org.
For many years, Hamas tolerated the Salafi jihadists, but recently these groups have become more antagonistic towards Hamas. In particular, the Salafi jihadists have criticized Hamas for its truces with Israel after conflicts in 2009 and 2012.
Salafi jihadists have also been involved in rocket attacks against Israel over the years. In December 2014, Hamas arrested Salafi jihadists for launching a rocket at Israel. Nevertheless, Israel holds Hamas—which is the local governing body—accountable for any rocket attacks coming from Gaza.
“They (the Salafi jihadists) are also up against a very formidable Hamas security apparatus in Gaza,” Zilber said. “As far as domestic security services inside the Strip, they (Hamas) are by far the most powerful actor.”
At the same time, after decades of neglect by the Egyptian government, the nearby Sinai Peninsula has become a hotbed of Islamic extremist activity.
In 2014, the Sinai-based terror group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis pledged loyalty to the Islamic State and has carried out Islamic State-style executions such as decapitations of Egyptian soldiers in the Sinai. Since then, the group has now referred to itself as Wilayet Sinai (Province of Sinai), in reference to it being a Sinai-based branch of Islamic State.
The Egyptian military, with tacit cooperation from Israel, has launched a major campaign to exterminate terror groups in the Sinai and to weaken Hamas in Gaza. Both Hamas and its parent group, the Muslim Brotherhood, are Egyptian government-designated terror groups.
Despite the growing threat of Salafi jihadists, Hamas officials have denied that Islamic State has a real presence in Gaza.
“There is nothing called the Islamic State in the Gaza Strip,” Hamas spokesman Sami Abu Zuhri recently said, Reuters reported.
“We do not fight people because of what they think, but at the same time, we do not allow any violations of security, whether by groups or individuals,” he said.
Yet the Salafi jihadists in Gaza—like Islamic terrorists in Libya, Nigeria, and the Sinai—have sought Islamic State’s blessings in their quest for affiliation with the terror group. The Salafis are making their presence known on social media, threatening Hamas with more attacks.
“They were inspired by the presence of ISIS (Islamic State) in Iraq and Syria and moreover in the Egyptian Sinai Peninsula,” Hani Habib, a Gaza-based political analyst, told Reuters.
Ironically, the menace of the Islamic State supporters may boost Hamas’s chances for survival, since Israel and others may see Hamas as a relatively stabilizing presence in Gaza compared to Islamic State.
“On a certain level, having these reports of Islamic State unrest in Gaza, it does serve one of [Hamas’s] purposes, which is that Hamas is the only one standing between the Islamic State and the complete chaos in the Gaza Strip,” Zilber told JNS.org.
For Israel, which has fought a series of deadly wars with Hamas, the Palestinian terror group’s presence in Gaza has been a serious threat to national security. But has Hamas’s governance of Gaza also created some stability? In a recent address to Israeli community leaders at Kibbutz Nahal Oz near the Israeli border with Gaza, Israel Defense Forces southern commander Maj. Gen. Sami Turgeman acknowledged as much, saying he sees no immediate alternative to Hamas’s rule in Gaza and does not believe it is possible to defeat Hamas in month-long military campaigns like last summer’s Operation Protective Edge.
“Gaza has an independent authority that functions like a country; there is a government and an annual plan, with executive bodies and inspection authorities,” Turgeman said, Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
“Most of the citizens in the Strip see Hamas as the only solution to their problems,” he said. “Whoever thinks there could be a national uprising—it doesn’t look likely. The chances it could happen are not high.”
Zilber said that there is “an ongoing debate in the Israeli political and military establishment about the best way forward in Gaza.” The analyst explained that some in Israel are advocating for maintaining the status quo of the blockade of Gaza and periodically fighting wars against Hamas, while preventing a humanitarian disaster in Gaza. Others support signing a long-term deal with Hamas, and allowing greater reconstruction and rehabilitation of Gaza to ensure a more enduring calm.
Over the last several months, it appears that Israel has taken the middle ground in Gaza, easing up on some restrictions such as exports of fruits and vegetables and allowing a greater number of reconstruction materials into the area.
“In actual terms, Israel’s policy has shifted greatly since the end of the war,” Zilber said. “It’s not a full scale hudna (Islamic long-term truce), but there has been a significant easing of some restrictions.”
Going forward for Israel, as the region becomes increasingly violent and unstable, it might be better to have the devil you know, Hamas, than the devil you don’t know, the Salafi jihadists.
“I think the middle ground will win out, while edging slightly more towards [IDF southern commander] Turgeman’s realpolitik assessment of ‘every couple of years we will have to fight a war against Hamas,’” said Zilber.
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The Canary Mission database was created to expose individuals and groups that are anti-Freedom, anti-American and anti-Semitic in order to protect the public and our democratic values.
“FREE PALESTINE!! and end the occupation...innocent palestinians are suffering everyday while the jews are enjoying the pain. Plz understand the truth the palestinians are being targeted because they think we r weak..WELL WE RNT!! There r millions ..especially children, babies dying..plz help send the real message to the world!! not the fake msg sent by the media who hides the truth...help the real people in need...FREE PALESTINE!! Ive been to Pstine .. i will never forget the things i saw...”
SJP was co-founded by Hatem Bazian and Snehal Shingavi in 2001 at UC Berkeley. Their intention was to advance the radical anti-Israel mission of the Muslim Students Association (MSA), but now masked as a secular organization.
SJP runs targeted and well-orchestrated campaigns against Israel including Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) resolutions, Israel-Apartheid initiatives, drives comparing Israel to Nazi Germany, mock check-points, "die-ins" as well as rallies and protests.
SJP chapters regularly host speakers who engage in language considered anti-Semitic by the U.S. State Department. Chapter events routinely include individuals and organizations who are linked to terrorist activity and call for violence against Jews.
SJP, along with the MSA, is rapidly creating a hostile andunsafe environment on US campuses for all who do not share their radical anti-Israel views. For this reason, they have been labeled by some as “Hamas on Campus.”
BDS
Othman was heavily involved in the 2015 MU Divest campaign as part of the Boycott, Divestment, Sanctions (BDS) movement on the Marquette campus.
The divestment resolution drafted in April 2015 targeted Israeli-linked companies including United Technologies, Caterpillar, G4S and Hewlett-Packard. SJP had 13 co-sponsoring student organizations and garnered over 700 signatures from faculty, alumni, and students in support of the resolution.
The executive session to debate and vote on the resolution took place behind closed doors and was not recorded after the student government president revealed a document that had been circulating the Marquette campus containing personal information about the student government senators, including their religion and political beliefs. It also contained assignments and plans of action to solicit their support for specific issues. SJP members and other non-student government campaigners were forced to wait outside.
The resolution passed with a 25-3-0 vote. However, all references to Israel and the companies targeted for divestment were removed from the bill, as well as the word “divestment.” The new resolution became a generic recommendation for the university to implement socially responsible investing, negating the efforts of MU Divest.
In response, Atari wrote an article for the anti-Israel blog website Mondoweiss in which she criticized “attempts by student senators to remove the Palestinian voice entirely” and gave anaudio interview with Electronic Intifada. When asked "How is SJP fighting back?," Atari replied that "We have been building coalitions. We have been taking initiatives in other ways, not just divestment... there is an ad- hoc coalition started at Marquette called "coalition of the colored students at Marquette (Coalition SOC)." A lot of SJP members are part of this coalition. We have been fighting this repression of our voices.“
On the same day the divestment vote took place, four members of Coalition SOC, two of which were were wearing MU Divest clothing were arrested for a blocking an intersection after an organised march which drew a large crowd of students, faculty, public safety and police officers. A week after the vote, SJP organised a sit in in which members of the MU Divest coalition walked into the Marquette University student government offices with black tape over their mouths.
The BDS movement was founded in 2005 by Omar Barghouti. The movement is self-described as "a campaign of boycotts, divestment and sanctions against Israel until it complies with international law and Palestinian rights.”
BDS activity is often aggressive and disruptive. It is documented that universities that pass BDS resolutions see a marked increase in anti-Semitism on campus. In 2013, the student government of the University of California Santa Barbara (UCSB) debated a BDS resolution. Reports emerged of threats of violence, the spitting on a female student senator, and theft of the personal property of anti-BDS activists. As a result, the student government chose to vote via a "secret ballot" in order to ensure their own safety.
Barghouti and the BDS movement are proponents of the radical "one-state solution" that has been denounced as a scheme to dissolve Israel as the Jewish State. Barghouti has been quoted as saying, "Good riddance! The two-state solution for the Palestinian-Israeli conflict is finally dead”, and that in a one-state “by definition, Jews will be a minority.”
The organization is affiliated with numerous anti-Israel groups worldwide, including ones that have been labeled terrorist organizations. The Jerusalem Post claims the BDS movement receives directives from Hamas and the Muslim Brotherhood and the movement is considered extreme even by Palestinian Authority president Mahmoud Abbas who stated his opposition to a BDS boycott of Israel in 2013.
The Canary Mission database was created to expose individuals and groups that are anti-Freedom, anti-American and anti-Semitic in order to protect the public and our democratic values.
