BREAKING: The U.N. Credentials Committee has just decided to defer its decision on whether to issue credentials to the envoys of the Taliban (under UN sanctions for terrorism) and the Burmese military junta to represent their countries at the world body. 🧵1⃣
.@SwedenUN Ambassador Karin Enestrom: "I can confirm that the Credentials Committee has had its meeting to consider credentials of UN member states, including Afghanistan and Myanmar. The committee has decided to defer its decision of the credentials in these two situations." 2⃣
"The report of the committee will be made public once it has been issued for the consideration of the General Assembly."
Sweden is Chair of the UN Credentials Committee. 3⃣
Reminder: The moment the United Nations grants credentials to the Taliban, this misogynist terrorist group will inherit the Afghan seat on the U.N. Women's Rights Commission. 4⃣
Today we remember the fate of 850,000 Jewish refugees forced out of Arab countries and Iran in the 20th century. Communities dating back 2500 years were destroyed.
At the UN, I asked Algeria, Egypt, Iraq & the others: “Where are your Jews?”
Full Video:
On this day 74 years ago, Nov. 30, 1947—a day after the UN voted to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states—Syria incited mobs in Aleppo. Rioters burned 50 Jewish shops, 5 schools, 18 synagogues, the community’s orphanage, a youth club & 150 homes. timesofisrael.com/a-different-hi…
In Aden, now part of Yemen, local Arabs slaughtered or burned to death 87 Jews, including children, women & the elderly; dozens more were seriously injured; the 2 Jewish schools, several synagogues & many homes were destroyed; every Jewish shop was looted. timesofisrael.com/murder-looting…
On this day in 1947, the United Nations voted to partition Palestine into Arab and Jewish states. The Jews danced in the streets. The Arabs rejected it, declared a war of extermination against the Jewish population, and lost.
Here's how the U.N. in Geneva today marked this date:
Arab League: “The Israeli government is an intransigent, racist government that does not believe in the two-state solution or in the right to self-determination. Their main program is expanding settlements, Judaization, and the repression of Palestinians.” media.un.org/en/asset/k1j/k…
.@OICatUN: “We celebrate Palestinian Solidarity Day in midst of continued practices of Israel, the occupying power, to perpetuate colonial occupation of the Palestinian land through aggression, forced displacement, ethnic cleansing, settlement, Judaization, land confiscation...”
Toronto District School Board superintendent vetoes student book event with Yazidi activist and Nobel Peace Prize laureate Nadia Murad because her memoir about being captured and sexually enslaved by Islamic State terrorists “would foster Islamophobia.” lefigaro.fr/culture/de-peu…
Tanya Lee, the book club organizer who tried to invite Murad, sent superintendent Helen Fisher information about the Islamic State. “It is a terrorist organization. It has nothing to do with ordinary Muslims. The Toronto School Board should be aware of the difference,” wrote Lee.
The next day, Fisher responded by sending Lee a copy of the school board’s policy on “selecting equitable, culturally relevant and responsive reading materials.”
Great journalism by @yardenas@ForeignPolicy: "My visit was cut short by UNRWA administrators, however, when I tried to speak with students about their curriculum inside the school. [But] I then caught up with several as they were beginning to walk home..."foreignpolicy.com/2021/11/05/unr…
"My interpreter and I introduced ourselves and asked students if they could tell us a bit about their lessons at school. The children were eager to speak.
Asked what they are taught about the martyrs of Palestine, a 5th grade student replied that..."
"...her class had just learned about Dalal Mughrabi (the perpetrator of the Coastal Road massacre who I had been told was no longer a part of the UNRWA curriculum).
'They taught us that she is a hero,' she said, showing us the page in her textbook."
"The great thing about having enemies is that you can pretend all the badness in the whole world is in your enemies, and all the goodness in the whole world is in you."
"You can be as nasty as you like and yet feel your behavior is morally justified.
Prescient John Cleese:
This is from 1987—two decades before Twitter—yet brilliantly explains the psychology of today's extremists who flourish in the age of social media.
Full text: "We've heard a lot about extremism recently. A nastier, harsher atmosphere everywhere..."
"More abuse and bother boy behavior, less friendliness and tolerance and respect for parents.
Alright, but what we never hear about extremism is its advantages. Well the biggest advantage of extremism is that it makes you feel good — because it provides you with enemies."
BREAKING: Ahead of a donors conference where UNRWA seeks to raise $800 million from Western states, today I called on @UNLazzarini—head of the agency that runs schools for Palestinians—to identify which teachers were suspended for antisemitism & terrorism.unwatch.org/ahead-of-donor…
UNRWA has reportedly suspended at least six of its employees after we exposed over 100 UNRWA educators and other employees who publicly propagate violence and antisemitism on social media, in breach of the agency’s proclaimed policy of “zero tolerance” for incitement.
"UNRWA's Adnan Abu Hasna told Al Jazeera they suspended a small number of employees and their monthly salaries pending an investigation into allegations against them of violating the principles of neutrality, incitement to violence and inciting hatred." aljazeera.net/news/humanrigh…