In 1968 and 1969, Poland’s communist government, led by Władysław Gomułka, ran a state-backed campaign against the country’s remaining Jews.

It began after Israel’s victory in the 1967 Six-Day War.

Gomułka gave a speech that June, warning of a supposed “fifth column” of Polish Jews who supported Israel. What started as anti-Israeli talk quickly became an anti-Jewish drive inside Poland.

The campaign stepped up sharply in March 1968. Student protests had broken out at universities, including Warsaw, over censorship and other grievances. Some of the students had Jewish roots. The authorities used this as an excuse to label the unrest a “Zionist” plot. They launched a huge propaganda effort: thousands of workplace and factory meetings passed resolutions condemning “Zionists.”

Official media and party speakers avoided the word “Jew” in public, but everyone understood the target.

Purges hit hard. Jews, or people with Jewish ancestry, were removed from jobs in the government, the army, universities, cultural institutions, and the party itself. Generals and high-ranking officers lost posts. Professors and intellectuals faced dismissal. The pressure was systematic: public accusations, loss of position, and social isolation. Many felt they had no future left in Poland.

Between 1968 and 1972, roughly 13,000 to 20,000 people of Jewish origin left the country. Most went in 1968 and 1969. The government encouraged or forced their exit, often stripping them of Polish citizenship and making them leave assets behind.

They headed mainly to Israel, but also to Sweden, Denmark, the United States, and elsewhere. Before the campaign, only about 25,000 to 30,000 Jews remained in Poland after the Holocaust and earlier waves of emigration. By the early 1970s, just a few thousand were left.

It was not street violence like the old pogroms. Instead, it was cold, official pressure that destroyed the last organised Jewish life in Poland. For that reason, some call the 1968 events the “last pogrom.” It ended centuries of Jewish presence in the country in a final, state-driven way. Families who had survived the Holocaust now faced another rupture.

Many described a deep sense of betrayal and loss, as if the place they had rebuilt in was turning them out for good.

The whole episode also tied into power struggles inside the Communist Party. Figures like General Mieczysław Moczar pushed the campaign to sideline rivals. The human cost fell squarely on Poland’s small Jewish community. It left the country quieter, smaller in diversity, and with a painful chapter that still echoes today.

1/5⬇️
“ ‘𝐴𝑟𝑒 𝑦𝑜𝑢 𝐽𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ?’ 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑜𝑓𝑓𝑖𝑐𝑖𝑜𝑢𝑠-𝑙𝑜𝑜𝑘𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝐷𝑢𝑡𝑐ℎ 𝑑𝑖𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡 𝑎𝑠𝑘𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑦 𝑑𝑎𝑑. ‘𝑌𝑒𝑠’, ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑎𝑖𝑑, 𝑟𝑒𝑎𝑙𝑖𝑠𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑎𝑡 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑡 𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦 𝑚𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡, 𝑒𝑣𝑒𝑟𝑦𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑐ℎ𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑑. 𝐻𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑛𝑜 𝑙𝑜𝑛𝑔𝑒𝑟 𝑃𝑜𝑙𝑖𝑠ℎ; 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑢𝑙𝑡𝑢𝑟𝑒 ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑎𝑑 𝑏𝑒𝑒𝑛 𝑏𝑜𝑟𝑛 𝑖𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑖𝑡𝑖𝑧𝑒𝑛𝑠ℎ𝑖𝑝 ℎ𝑒 ℎ𝑒𝑙𝑑, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑎𝑛𝑔𝑢𝑎𝑔𝑒 ℎ𝑒 𝑠𝑝𝑜𝑘𝑒, 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑟𝑦 ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑑 – 𝑖𝑡 𝑎𝑙𝑙 𝑚𝑒𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑛𝑜𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔. 𝐻𝑒 𝑤𝑎𝑠 𝑗𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝐽𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ. 𝐻𝑒 𝑐𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑𝑛’𝑡 𝑏𝑒 𝑏𝑜𝑡ℎ. 𝑇ℎ𝑒 𝑑𝑖𝑝𝑙𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑚𝑝𝑒𝑑 𝑚𝑦 𝑓𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟’𝑠 𝑝𝑎𝑝𝑒𝑟𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 ℎ𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑎 𝑛𝑒𝑤 𝑙𝑖𝑓𝑒 𝑖𝑛 𝑤𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑒𝑟𝑛 𝐸𝑢𝑟𝑜𝑝𝑒.”

2/5⬇️

spectator.com/article/poland…

Today we remember them:
a 10 part🧵

The British Jewish community’s significant participation in World War I (1914–1918):

British Jews served in numbers far exceeding their proportion of the population, produced five Victoria Cross winners, and played a decisive role in the Palestine Campaign, while simultaneously fighting prejudice at home. Their contribution is one of the most proportionally distinguished of any British religious or ethnic minority in the Great War.

Approximately 55,000–60,000 British Jews served in the British Armed Forces during WW1 (out of a UK Jewish population of ~250,000–300,000).
This represented ~20–25% of the adult Jewish male population, proportionally higher than the general British population (~17–18% of adult males served).
At least 2,800 British Jews were killed in action or died of wounds (some sources cite 3,000+).
Over 1,800 Jewish servicemen received gallantry decorations.

Two specifically Jewish units existed:
38th–42nd Battalions, Royal Fusiliers (“Judeans” or Jewish Legion): ~5,000 volunteers, many from Britain, but also Russia, USA, Canada, and ‘Palestine’. They fought in the Palestine Campaign (1918) under Allenby, capturing Jerusalem and pushing the Ottomans back.
Several hundred Jewish sailors and ~50 Jewish pilots (e.g., the famous “flying brothers” Louis and Archie Arenstein).

Here’s a list of Victoria Cross Recipients (Britain’s highest award for valor):
Lt Frank Alexander de Pass (Indian Army, attached 34th Poona Horse) – First Jewish VC of WW1 (awarded posthumously, 1914, Festubert, France).
Cpl Issy Smith (1st Manchester Regiment) – Australian-born British Jew; carried wounded under fire at Ypres, 1915.
Lt Leonard Keysor (Australian Imperial Force, but born in London) – Caught Turkish bombs and threw them back at Gallipoli.
Sgt Maj John Henry “Jack” Cohen (later founder of Tesco) – Served in Royal Flying Corps.
Brevet Lt Col John Patterson (commanded Jewish Legion; previously led Tsavo lion hunt in Kenya).

Other Distinguished Figures:
Captain Robert Gee MC (Royal Fusiliers) – Later MP; won MC and bar.
Lt Harold Rosher – One of the first Royal Naval Air Service pilots; killed 1916.
The Sassoon family: Siegfried Sassoon (famous war poet, MC) and his cousin Philip Sassoon (Under-Secretary of State for Air).
Rufus Isaacs, 1st Marquess of Reading – Lord Chief Justice, then Viceroy of India; coordinated Jewish recruitment.
Rabbi Rev. Michael Adler – Senior Jewish Chaplain to the Forces; visited every front.

Jewish Lads’ Brigade (founded 1895) became a major recruiting platform; thousands joined directly from it.
Jewish War Services Committee (1915) raised funds, provided comforts, and recorded every Jewish serviceman’s name (leading to the still-extant “Jewish Roll of Honour”).
Zionist leader Chaim Weizmann used Jewish military service as leverage for the Balfour Declaration (1917).

Despite high service rates, British Jews faced suspicion:
Recent Eastern-European Jewish immigrants (~120,000 in East London) were sometimes accused of avoiding service.
The government created the Jewish Legion partly to prove loyalty and counter propaganda.
Naturalisation laws were tightened; some Russian-Jewish volunteers were deported if they refused to enlist.

Memorials:
Jewish Military Museum (London) and AJEX (Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women) maintain records.
Cenotaph (Whitehall) includes Jewish names; separate Jewish war memorials exist in Willesden Jewish Cemetery and several synagogues.
The Jewish Legion’s service directly influenced the creation of Israel’s future army (many Haganah/IDF founders were Legion veterans).

1/10 In the sweltering summer of 1917, amid the fog of London’s East End, a dream took shape in the form of weary tailors, shopkeepers, and immigrants who had fled pogroms in Russia. These were the men of the 38th Battalion, Royal Fusiliers, the “London Battalion” of the Jewish Legion, volunteers who answered Ze’ev Jabotinsky’s impassioned call to arms.

“We will fight not as scattered Jews, but as a united force for our homeland,” Jabotinsky proclaimed in packed synagogues, rallying over 2,000 British Jews to enlist despite opposition from assimilated Jewish leaders who feared it would stoke antisemitism.

Commanded by Lieutenant Colonel John Henry Patterson, a Protestant Irishman famous for his exploits hunting man-eating lions in Kenya and leading the Zion Mule Corps at Gallipoli, the battalion formed as the first overtly Jewish unit in the British Army since Roman times.

They trained near Portsmouth, drilling in the mud with rifles that felt foreign in hands more accustomed to needles and ledgers, while Patterson instilled discipline and pride, declaring them “the descendants of the Maccabees.”

Across the Atlantic, in the bustling streets of New York’s Lower East Side, a parallel fire burned. David Ben-Gurion, a young Zionist exile from Poland, and Yitzhak Ben-Zvi pounded pavements and union halls, recruiting for the 39th Battalion, the “American Battalion.” “Join the fight to liberate Eretz Israel,” they urged, drawing in garment workers, students, and idealists from Poalei Zion and HaHalutz movements.

By late 1917, nearly 5,000 American Jews had volunteered, though only about half would see combat; the rest formed reserves. Under Colonel Eliezer Margolin, an Australian Jew hardened by Gallipoli’s trenches, they shipped out from Nova Scotia’s Fort Edward in February 1918, singing Hebrew anthems as they crossed the ocean to Egypt for final training.

Malaria ravaged their ranks in the desert camps, claiming lives before a single shot was fired, but the survivors emerged tougher, their uniforms emblazoned with the Magen David and the Hebrew motto “Kadima”- Forward.

By June 1918, both battalions converged in ‘Palestine’, the land of their ancestors, now a battlefield against the crumbling Ottoman Empire.

The 38th took positions in the Ephraim hills, 20 miles north of Jerusalem, staring down Turkish trenches under relentless sun and sniper fire.

In August, they shifted to the Jordan Valley front, linking British lines and advancing to As-Salt, where they garrisoned the rugged Gilead region, capturing prisoners and holding ground amid skirmishes.

The 39th, split in two, joined them in the valley campaigns, their American accents mixing with Cockney slang as they patrolled dusty wadis and repelled Ottoman probes.

Then came the thunder of September, the Battle of Megiddo, General Allenby’s masterstroke to shatter the Ottoman armies. On the night of the 19th, under a moonless sky, the 38th and 39th received orders: seize the Umm ash-Shert ford, the only bridge east of the Jordan near Netiv HaGdud, to punch a hole in the enemy’s flank.

Marching 12 miles from Jericho with pontoons and ropes, the men, 1,600 strong, faced 300-foot bluffs bristling with Ottoman machine guns and artillery.

The first wave faltered under withering fire; Captain Julian was rescued from drowning, a lieutenant wounded and captured, a private slain. But Jabotinsky, now a lieutenant in the 38th, led the second company across the swaying pontoon at dawn on the 20th, charging up the cliffs with bayonets fixed, capturing the bridgehead amid cries of “Shema Yisrael!”

The 39th surged forward too, grenades flying, silencing gun nests and taking hundreds of prisoners.

By afternoon, under a creeping barrage, they stormed the Shunet Nimrin redoubt, securing the ford and opening the path for Australian cavalry to pour through, pursuing the retreating Turks 60 miles toward Damascus.

2/10

The story of Babi Yar is one of the most tragic and horrific episodes of the Holocaust, reflecting the brutality of Nazi mass murder during World War II. Babi Yar is a ravine located on the outskirts of Kyiv, Ukraine, where tens of thousands of Jews, along with other groups, were systematically executed by Nazi forces in 1941 and subsequent years.

In June 1941, Nazi Germany launched Operation Barbarossa, the invasion of the Soviet Union, which included the occupation of Ukraine. Kyiv, the capital of Soviet Ukraine, fell to German forces on September 19, 1941. The Nazis implemented their genocidal policies against Jews and other groups deemed undesirable, including Romani people, Soviet prisoners of war, and Ukrainian nationalists. The Einsatzgruppen, mobile killing squads, were tasked with carrying out mass shootings of civilians in occupied territories.

Babi Yar became infamous as the site of one of the largest single massacres of the Holocaust, emblematic of the “Holocaust by bullets,” where victims were shot in mass executions rather than deported to death camps.

The Massacre of September 29–30, 1941
On September 24, 1941, shortly after the German occupation of Kyiv, a series of explosions rocked the city, destroying German administrative buildings. The Nazis blamed Jewish residents for the sabotage (though it was likely carried out by Soviet agents). In retaliation, the German authorities, led by Einsatzgruppe C, decided to exterminate Kyiv’s Jewish population.

On September 28, 1941, the Germans posted notices around Kyiv ordering all Jews to assemble near the Jewish cemetery on the morning of September 29, under the pretext of “resettlement.” The notices instructed Jews to bring documents, money, valuables, and warm clothing. Many believed they were being deported, not executed.

On September 29–30, 1941, an estimated 33,771 Jews were rounded up and marched to Babi Yar, a large ravine northwest of Kyiv. There, they were forced to undress, surrender their belongings, and line up at the edge of the ravine.

Einsatzgruppe C, assisted by German police units and local collaborators, systematically shot the victims in groups. Men, women, and children were gunned down, their bodies falling into the ravine, which became a mass grave. The killings were carried out with ruthless efficiency over two days, with survivors buried alive under the weight of the dead.

The massacre was meticulously documented by the Nazis themselves. Reports from Einsatzgruppe C, particularly Sonderkommando 4a under SS-Standartenführer Paul Blobel, confirmed the death toll of 33,771 in those two days. This figure, drawn from Nazi records, is considered precise, though the total number of victims at Babi Yar over the course of the war is much higher.

Babi Yar remained a site of executions throughout the German occupation of Kyiv (1941–1943). In addition to Jews, the Nazis killed Romani people, Soviet prisoners of war, Ukrainian nationalists, and others at the site. Estimates suggest that between 100,000 and 150,000 people were murdered at Babi Yar during the war, though exact numbers are difficult to verify due to the scale of the killings and later efforts to conceal them.

In 1943, as the Soviet Red Army advanced and the Germans faced defeat, the Nazis attempted to cover up their crimes at Babi Yar. Under Operation 1005, led by Paul Blobel, prisoners from nearby camps were forced to exhume and burn the bodies to destroy evidence of the massacres. Many of these prisoners were subsequently killed to eliminate witnesses.

Despite these efforts, the scale of the atrocities could not be fully hidden.
Aftermath and Soviet Suppression
When Soviet forces liberated Kyiv in November 1943, the horrors of Babi Yar came to light, though the full extent of the massacre was not immediately publicized. The Soviet government, under Joseph Stalin, downplayed the specifically Jewish nature of the killings, framing Babi Yar as a crime against “Soviet citizens.”

1/8 This suppression of the truth delayed recognition of Babi Yar as a central site of the Holocaust.

Survivors’ testimonies, such as that of Dina Pronicheva, a Jewish woman who escaped the massacre by pretending to be dead, provided critical accounts of the events. Pronicheva’s survival and testimony, along with others, helped preserve the memory of Babi Yar despite official silence.

In the post-war years, Babi Yar remained a contested site of memory. The Soviet authorities neglected the site, and in the 1950s, plans were made to fill in the ravine and develop the area for urban use. A 1961 poem by Russian poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko, titled “Babi Yar,” brought international attention to the massacre and criticized the Soviet government’s refusal to acknowledge its Jewish victims. The poem begins with the famous lines:

“𝑁𝑜 𝑚𝑜𝑛𝑢𝑚𝑒𝑛𝑡 𝑠𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑑𝑠 𝑜𝑣𝑒𝑟 𝐵𝑎𝑏𝑖 𝑌𝑎𝑟.
𝐴 𝑑𝑟𝑜𝑝 𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑒𝑟 𝑎𝑠 𝑎 𝑐𝑟𝑢𝑑𝑒 𝑔𝑟𝑎𝑣𝑒𝑠𝑡𝑜𝑛𝑒.”

Yevtushenko’s work, later set to music in Dmitri Shostakovich’s Symphony No. 13, sparked public debate and highlighted the need for proper commemoration. In 1976, a monument was finally erected at Babi Yar, but it referred only to “Soviet citizens” and omitted mention of Jewish victims. It was not until Ukraine’s independence in 1991 that Babi Yar began to be recognized specifically as a site of Jewish martyrdom.
Today, Babi Yar is a major Holocaust memorial site. In 1991, a menorah-shaped monument was dedicated to the Jewish victims, and in recent years, the Babi Yar Holocaust Memorial Center has been established to preserve the history of the massacre, educate the public, and honor the victims. The site remains a place of pilgrimage, reflection, and remembrance.

The Babi Yar massacre is a stark reminder of the scale and brutality of the Holocaust, particularly the “Holocaust by bullets” in Eastern Europe, where millions were killed in mass shootings rather than in camps. It underscores the complicity of local collaborators, the indifference of some bystanders, and the resilience of survivors who bore witness. The event also highlights the challenges of historical memory, as political agendas shaped how Babi Yar was remembered or forgotten for decades.
The story of Babi Yar continues to resonate as a call for remembrance, justice, and vigilance against hatred and genocide. It serves as a somber testament to the consequences of antisemitism and dehumanization, urging future generations to confront and prevent such atrocities.

2/8

Ｊ’ａｃｃｕｓｅ!

A leaked document has exposed a disturbing truth: NGOs are feeding propaganda to independent media, pushing agenda-driven narratives riddled with inconsistencies and lies. This revelation, regardless of political affiliation, should alarm anyone who values a fair and free press. If such manipulation is happening unchecked, what else are we being misled about? This assault on journalistic integrity demands urgent accountability to safeguard honest reporting and public trust.

Ｊ’ａｃｃｕｓｅ !

NGOs wielding influence over the media can distort public discourse by prioritising their agendas over objective reporting. When these unelected organisations use funding, exclusive access, or insider relationships to shape narratives, they risk undermining the democratic role of a free press. A truly independent media should focus on rigorous investigation and amplifying diverse voices, not serving as a mouthpiece for NGOs with specific ideological or political goals. This dynamic threatens the public’s ability to access unfiltered information, which is essential for informed democratic participation.
The danger lies in how NGOs can subtly or overtly pressure media outlets to align with their narratives, whether through financial incentives or by positioning themselves as gatekeepers of “credible” information. This can drown out dissenting perspectives and create a homogenized version of the truth that serves the NGO’s interests rather than the public’s. For democracy to function, the media must remain a neutral arbiter, challenging all sources, NGOs included, and fostering open debate rather than amplifying curated agendas.

Paul, none of that is remotely true. I’ll break it down for you & add some links through a thread & perhaps you’ll learn something here.

Follow the thread
🧵
1/6

https://twitter.com/poiu477/status/1905237065748332920

Let’s start with the land , firstly, our people have thousands of years of history on the land. One of our oldest and most holy cemeteries is called the Mount of Olives. It’s the largest Jewish cemetery in the world. It has been in use since King David made Jerusalem his capital 3,000 years ago. The cemetery holds about 150,000 graves, but there may even be more. Prominent Jewish Biblical figures, great statesmen, creators, and religious leaders are buried on this sacred ground.
2/6

The incredible Bielski Brothers :

After their parents and other relatives were murdered in a massacre of around 5,000 Jews on December 8, 1941,
Tuvia, Asael, Zusya and Aharon  Bielski, fled to the Belarusian forest and set up a partisan unit with Tuvia Bielski as the commander.

However, unlike other partisan groups, fighting the enemy was not their highest goal. Their primary objective was to rescue Jews and to offer them shelter and protection in the forest.

“𝐷𝑜𝑛’𝑡 𝑟𝑢𝑠ℎ 𝑡𝑜 𝑓𝑖𝑔ℎ𝑡 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑑𝑖𝑒. 𝑆𝑜 𝑓𝑒𝑤 𝑜𝑓 𝑢𝑠 𝑎𝑟𝑒 𝑙𝑒𝑓𝑡, 𝑤𝑒 𝑛𝑒𝑒𝑑 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑙𝑖𝑣𝑒𝑠. 𝐼𝑡 𝑖𝑠 𝑚𝑜𝑟𝑒 𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑜𝑟𝑡𝑎𝑛𝑡 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝐽𝑒𝑤𝑠 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑡𝑜 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝐺𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛𝑠."   

The brothers did not only admit those who were able to fight, but every Jewish woman or man, no matter whether the person was young or old, healthy or sick, a fighter or a noncombatant. Tuvia Bielski explained that he “… 𝑤𝑜𝑢𝑙𝑑 𝑟𝑎𝑡ℎ𝑒𝑟 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝑜𝑛𝑒 𝑜𝑙𝑑 𝐽𝑒𝑤𝑖𝑠ℎ 𝑤𝑜𝑚𝑎𝑛, 𝑡ℎ𝑎𝑛 𝑘𝑖𝑙𝑙 𝑡𝑒𝑛 𝐺𝑒𝑟𝑚𝑎𝑛 𝑠𝑜𝑙𝑑𝑖𝑒𝑟𝑠.”

“𝑊𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑚𝑝𝑙𝑦 ℎ𝑖𝑑𝑒 𝑜𝑢𝑟𝑠𝑒𝑙𝑣𝑒𝑠. 𝑊𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑑𝑜 𝑠𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑡ℎ𝑖𝑛𝑔 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑜𝑢𝑟 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒. 𝑊𝑒 𝑐𝑎𝑛𝑛𝑜𝑡 𝑠𝑖𝑡 𝑖𝑛 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑏𝑢𝑠ℎ𝑒𝑠 𝑎𝑛𝑑 𝑤𝑎𝑖𝑡 𝑢𝑛𝑡𝑖𝑙 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑤𝑜𝑙𝑓 𝑐𝑜𝑚𝑒𝑠 𝑓𝑜𝑟 𝑢𝑠. 𝑊𝑒 𝑚𝑢𝑠𝑡 𝑠𝑒𝑛𝑑 𝑝𝑒𝑜𝑝𝑙𝑒 𝑡𝑜 𝑡ℎ𝑒 𝑔ℎ𝑒𝑡𝑡𝑜𝑠 𝑡𝑜 𝑠𝑎𝑣𝑒 𝐽𝑒𝑤𝑠.”

Fighters were sent to the ghettos and hiding places of the towns of Nowogródek and Lida to convince people to escape from the ghettos and to join the brothers in the forest. 

This was not an easy task. Many ghetto inmates were not interested in leaving the ghetto. Unlike the Bielski brothers who were familiar with the forest given that they had lived in it all their lives, most city or town people had no idea how to live in the woods. They wondered how one could live in the forest among trees, swamps, wild animals and mosquitoes. Some feared spending the harsh winters in the forest; others did not want to leave their families behind. Some were afraid of taking such a risk; others believed they would survive if they continued working for the Germans. They also felt that no further massacres would occur since the remaining population consisted of skilled workers.
Furthermore, each person escaping the ghetto endangered the lives of the remaining population. Some people feared the revenge of the Germans even more than they feared the hunger and the cold of the forests. They also did not believe that fighting the Germans would change the course of history – What could a few partisans do against an army that conquered all of Europe?
Moreover, Tuvia had been in the Polish army, and had military training, whereas most people from the towns did not know how to use a rifle. It was not an easy decision to go to the forest, fight Germans, Polish and Belarusian peasants and partisans, and look for food. 

The Judenrat, the Jewish council, and the Jewish police tried to prevent escapes from the ghetto. They feared that the whole population would be executed if a single Jew was missing as the Germans often collectively punished not only those they caught trying to escape, but also others living in the ghetto.

Despite these fears and threats, escapes were attempted frequently. Many came to the conclusion that they would be killed anyway and preferred to die on their own terms. In the forest people were at least free and had an opportunity to resist, whereas in the German-controlled areas they were unable to do so.

The brothers had received weapons from a Russian partisan unit & were therefore able to protect themselves.

1/4 The ones that had decided to escape had to slip through fences, holes and tunnels and walk through the countryside to the forest camp.

Some people found their own way into the forest. Because of the constant movement of the Bielski group especially during the first year, special scouts were sent out to look for people.
For many escapees, the house of gentile peasants served as a way station. There they were given food and a place to rest before members of the Bielski group would come to lead them to the base.

The group was dependent on their gentile neighbors without whom they would not have been able to survive. They helped the Jewish group regarding food, information, passing on messages to people in hiding or in the ghettos and hiding escapees.
In the forest the new members had to learn to adapt to their new surrounding in nature, which was important for their survival.

As the Bielski group grew bigger they faced different challenges and dilemmas.
The most pressing challenge for the fugitives was procuring enough food for the whole community. It became a fulltime occupation.

Young armed men were organized into small squads and put in charge of collecting food from peasants. The dilemma was to find out which peasant was trustworthy and would be able and willing to provide them with food. The Belarusian farmers were struggling to supply the Germans, and the Soviet partisans also confiscated food for themselves. 

Other peasants refused to hand over their food to Jews, and sometimes informed the German authorities of Jewish partisans in the forests.

Protecting the camp from intruders, defending themselves against Germans and the local police was equally important. For this purpose camp members were set up as guards. All adults were required to do guard duty, except for the sick, the handicapped and the elderly.

Other small squads were sent out on dangerous missions to rescue Jews from the ghettos. In order to protect the camp and rescue Jews the members of the Bielski group needed to acquire weapons.

Other partisan groups or friendly peasants provided them with arms; many were also obtained through attacks against German outposts and troops.

Spending the harsh Belarusian winters with its freezing temperatures in the forest was deadly, and the challenge was to keep people from freezing to death and to deal with the members’ health problems.

One solution was the construction of insulated structures. Members of the Bielski camp cut down trees and dug holes. The surface of the roof was packed with dirt, branches, and vegetation to camouflage the structure from intruders. In the dugout there were lines of wooden bunks, usually covered with straw.

At the beginning of 1943 the group consisted of about three hundred people and additional dugouts were constructed. Close to each one of them was a campfire to warm the people and cook food.

Besides these challenges, the group also had to fight for their position in the forest among the non-Jewish partisans. Many Russian partisan groups were formed in the area as a result of the fast-retreating Red Army and the fast and unexpected attack of the Germans and their quick advance in 1941. Some of these Soviet partisans were suspicious of the Bielski partisans because they were a purely Jewish group with many noncombatants. Even though the cooperation was not always easy, the Bielski brothers worked together with Russian partisans against the Germans. They combined forces with the partisan unit of Viktor Panchenkov, a soldier who had served in the Red army and whose unit was overrun when the Nazis invaded in June 1941. The Bielski group became an official participant in the Soviet war effort. Several attempts by Soviet commanders to absorb Bielski fighters into their units were resisted, and the Jewish partisan group kept its integrity and remained under Tuvia Bielski's command. This allowed the group to continue in their primary mission to protect Jewish lives.

2/4

The United Nations was founded as a forum of governments. This arrangement presented enough problems of its own. Now the UN, in contravention of its own charter, is rapidly evolving into a predatory, undemocratic, unaccountable, and self-serving vehicle for global government. The UN is unweildy, gross, inefficient, and incompetent. In addition, it is configured as to reach deep into the national politics of its member states and, by sheer weight and persistence, to force at least some of the worst of its agenda upon them all.

Let’s scratch the surface of the UNs gross human rights violations : A 🧵

The UN Human Rights Office is under fire for sharing the names of Chinese government opponents, including Uighur activists, Tibetans and Hongkongers, who took part in UN activities, for a long period.

The names of 50-70 people who are opponents of the Chinese government were handed over and among them are 8-9 people with US citizenship and 5-6 with German citizenship.

“𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘜𝘕 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘖𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘷𝘦𝘭𝘺 𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘢𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘳𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘩𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘳𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘥𝘦𝘧𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘳𝘴. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘶𝘭𝘥𝘯’𝘵 𝘣𝘦 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘵𝘳𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘳𝘴𝘪𝘢𝘭. 𝘈𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘩𝘰𝘤𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘰𝘯𝘭𝘺 𝘤𝘰𝘯𝘤𝘦𝘳𝘯 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘶𝘮𝘢𝘯 𝘙𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘴 𝘖𝘧𝘧𝘪𝘤𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘮𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘪𝘵, 𝘣𝘶𝘵 𝘯𝘰𝘵 𝘵𝘰 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘱𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘵𝘪𝘤𝘦."
Emma Reilly

In September 2013, when Chinese human rights activist Cao Shunli tried to fly to Geneva to attend a session of the UN human rights council (UNHRC). Cao had submitted information on extralegal detention and torture in China to the UN and expressed the hope that if she could get even “50 or 100 words” into a UN report, “many of our problems could start to get addressed”.

Cao never made the flight. Police took her away at the airport, detained her for six months, and denied her medical treatment despite repeated warnings from her lawyer that her health was deteriorating, until it was too late. Doctors at the hospital expressed shock at her condition; it seemed she had simply been left to die in her cell. No state agent has been punished for her death.

Ten other Chinese activists, journalists, scholars, and lawyers are on a medical watchlist of political prisoners, launched after Cao’s death to draw attention to China’s practice of torture by withholding medical treatment.

The Chinese government under Xi Jinping has so far faced no meaningful repercussions internationally for the deaths in custody of prisoners of conscience. Domestically, state agents have enjoyed total impunity while family members, lawyers, friends, and supporters have been threatened, disappeared, detained, or tortured.

In fact, after Cao’s death, the UN general assembly re-elected China to the UN human rights council in 2016 by a greater number of votes than in 2013. Chinese Communist party mouthpiece the People’s Daily proudly heralded it as proof that China’s human rights progress had “received widespread approval from the international community”. The UN have a decades-old pattern of sexual abuse and solicitation of prostitution in countries ravaged by natural disasters and conflict.

Mossad, the national intelligence agency of Israel, is known for its covert operations and intelligence-gathering capabilities. Here are some facts about Mossad:

🧵

𝐅𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐇𝐢𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲:

Mossad was established in December 1949, shortly after the founding of the State of Israel. It was created to gather intelligence, conduct covert operations, and ensure the security of the new nation.

𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐨𝐮𝐬 𝐎𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬:

Mossad is renowned for several high-profile operations, including:

*Operation Eichmann (1960): Mossad agents captured Adolf Eichmann, a key architect of the Holocaust, in Argentina and brought him to Israel for trial.

*Operation Entebbe (1976): Although primarily an IDF operation, Mossad played a crucial role in gathering intelligence for the rescue of hostages taken by terrorists in Uganda.

𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐆𝐚𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠:

Mossad is known for its extensive network of spies and informants around the world. It often relies on human intelligence (HUMINT) rather than signals intelligence (SIGINT), which is more common in other agencies.

𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐞𝐝 𝐀𝐬𝐬𝐚𝐬𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧𝐬:

Mossad has conducted numerous targeted assassinations of individuals deemed threats to Israeli security, including scientists and military leaders from hostile nations. The agency believes that these operations can prevent larger threats to Israel.
Cultural Influence: Mossad has inspired various films, books, and TV shows, portraying its operations and agents.

Productions like "The Spy" and "Fauda" reflect its significant role in popular culture.

𝐂𝐲𝐛𝐞𝐫 𝐈𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐥𝐥𝐢𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞:

In recent years, Mossad has increasingly focused on cyber intelligence and warfare, adapting to the modern landscape of threats, which includes cyberattacks and digital espionage.

𝐂𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐚𝐛𝐨𝐫𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐎𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐀𝐠𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐢𝐞𝐬:

Mossad often collaborates with intelligence agencies from other countries, particularly those with shared interests, such as the United States, UK, and various European nations.

𝐑𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐮𝐢𝐭𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭:

The agency is known for being highly selective in its recruitment process, seeking individuals with unique skills, backgrounds, and languages. Many agents are often former members of the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).

𝐒𝐞𝐜𝐫𝐞𝐜𝐲 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐏𝐮𝐛𝐥𝐢𝐜 𝐈𝐦𝐚𝐠𝐞:

Mossad operates under a veil of secrecy, and much of what is known about its operations comes from leaks, declassified documents, or the accounts of former agents. This secrecy contributes to its mystique and reputation.

C𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨𝐫𝐢𝐬𝐦:

Mossad plays a crucial role in counterterrorism efforts, focusing on threats from terrorist organisations and hostile nations. They conduct operations to thwart attacks and gather intelligence on potential threats.

These facts illustrate the complexity and effectiveness of Mossad as a key player in global intelligence operations. *Mossad bugged the home of the Kuwaiti ambassador to the United Nations in 1978 and discovered that Andrew Young, U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, was holding talks with PLO officials there. The meeting was highly controversial, since the United States had already promised Israel that it would not meet directly with the PLO until the PLO recognised Israel's right to exist. The Mossad leaked the information, forcing Young to resign.

*A French Mossad agent placed a homing device in the Iraqi Osirak nuclear reactor, enabling Israel's precise 1981 bombing of the facility. The agent died in the attack.

*In 2017, two helicopters flew a team of commandos and Mossad operatives deep into Syria to gain information on a reported new Isis weapon.

They landed some miles from their target and proceeded in vehicles with Syrian Army markings before bugging the Isis cell and getting back out

Unit 8200, Israel’s signals intelligence corps, monitored the broadcasts from the bugs for several days before striking gold – an Isis soldier explaining how to create a bomb from a laptop that would fool airport security.

Israel quickly shared the details with the U.S. and Britain. A widespread ban on carrying laptops on planes was announced later that year.

𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝
𝐓𝐡𝐞𝐧 & 𝐍𝐨𝐰

Medieval antisemites believed awful things about Jews and that gave them license to do awful things to Jews. The same is true today.

The “𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝” refers to a centuries-old false allegation that Jews murder Christians – especially Christian children – to use their blood for ritual purposes, such as an ingredient in the baking of Passover matzah (unleavened bread). It is also sometimes called the “ritual murder charge.” The blood libel dates back to the Middle Ages and has persisted despite Jewish denials and official repudiations by the Catholic Church and many secular authorities. Blood libels have frequently led to mob violence and pogroms, and have occasionally led to the decimation of entire Jewish communities.

The first ritual muder charge took place in Norwich, England, in the twelfth century. A boy named William was found dead in the woods outside of town, and a monk, Thomas of Monmouth, accused local Jews of torturing him and murdering him in mockery of the crucifixion of Jesus. Although many townspeople did not believe this claim, a cult venerating the boy eventually sprang up. At this time the myth began to circulate that each year, Jewish leaders around the world met to choose a country and a town from which a Christian would be apprehended and murdered.

Thomas of Monmouth’s blood libel circulated through Europe for nearly two decades. Then, in 1171, it became deadly. In Blois, France, a Jew and a Christian brought their horses to drink from the river. The Jew dropped an untanned hide and the horse of the Christian jumped. The Christian then claimed that the Jew had dropped a murdered baby into the river.

Count Thibault, the local ruler (and brother-in-law of the French King Louis VII) claimed that the Jewish community had committed a ritual murder. The judicial proceedings, which were based on a bizarre trial by ordeal, found the Jews guilty, even without a body or an alleged victim.

32 Jews were burned at the stake.

Rabbeinu Yaakov Tam, the great rabbinic leader and grandson of Rashi, then declared the 20th of Sivan a fast day. (He was 71 at the time and died a few weeks later.)

Declaring a new fast for the murdered in Blois was a major statement. No fast had been declared for the First and Second Crusades, which resulted in thousands of deaths. Rabbeinu Tam himself nearly died in the Second Crusade, but he realized that what happened in Blois was even worse. He recognised that the 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝 was a lethal form of propaganda and would cause centuries of trouble. He was right.

The 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝 spread throughout the Christian world in the Middle Ages. When a Christian child went missing, it was not uncommon for local Jews to be blamed. Even when there was no evidence that any Jew had anything to do with the missing child, Jews were tortured until they confessed to heinous crimes. Some Christians believed that the four cups of wine that Jews drink at the Passover Seder celebrations were actually blood, or that Jews mixed blood into hamantaschen, sweet pastries eaten on the Jewish holiday of Purim. Others claimed that Jews used Christian blood as a medicine or even as an aphrodisiac. Scholars have documented about 100 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝 that took place from the twelfth to sixteenth centuries. Many of them resulted in massacres of Jews.

The 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝 persisted into modern times. In 1840, members of the Damascus Jewish community were charged with kidnapping and killing a Christian priest who had disappeared. Several notable Jews from Damascus were tortured to extract confessions, and an angry mob destroyed a synagogue and its Torah scrolls. Jews were massacred repeatedly in the Muslim world, partly as a result of this libel, which had been imported from Christian society.

𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝 continued even into the twentieth century as well. In 1913 a Ukrainian Jew named Menahem Mendel Beilis was charged with ritually killing a Christian child whose body was discovered near a local brick factory in Kiev. During a sensational trial, numerous respected Russian intellectuals and scholars testified that Jews attacked Christians and used their blood in obscene rituals. Ultimately Beilis was acquitted of the charges, but not before horrific anti-Semitic claims were repeated and broadcast throughout Russia.

A 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝 occurred in Massena, New York, in 1928. When a four-year-old girl went missing from her home, a rumor spread that local Jews had kidnapped and killed her. Crowds gathered outside Massena’s police station, where the town’s rabbi had been summoned. A state trooper questioned the rabbi, and asked him whether Jews offered human sacrifices or used blood in rituals. The girl was eventually found alive and unharmed.

The original 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝 started with the intelligentsia and became well-accepted.

Once again, Israel is guilty until proven innocent. Even a hostage rescue is immediately treated as a wanton massacre of innocent civilians until Israel provides video evidence to the contrary.

Once again, leading the charge against Israel are some well-educated people—professors and students at elite universities who, in their hatred of Israel, are eager to support a group of fanatical, depraved murderers. And like Thomas of Monmouth, the testimony of individual Jews, no matter how tainted, is taken to support horrific falsehoods.

The libel of Jewish ritual murder was accepted by some of the most educated people and that opened the door to widespread violence.

In recent years, there have been a number of antisemitic accusations of Israel harvesting organs of Palestinians, including during the post-Oct. 7 period. These claims are a modern iteration of the age-old antisemitic 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝.

Ironically, such accusations have surfaced even when Israel was providing humanitarian aid, as in the case of Haiti after it had been struck by an earthquake in 2010.

Since the Oct. 7 massacre perpetrated by Hamas and the subsequent Israeli military action in Gaza, some anti-Israel voices in the Middle East, Europe, Australia and the United States have been using cartoons and social media posts to accuse Israel of stealing organs from Palestinians killed in Gaza, and to claim that “child murder” was a preferred “ritual” for Israel, with babies being a “favorite target.” Several depicted Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as consuming Palestinian blood, while others used imagery of bleeding babies to play up charges of 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝.

Notably, the wide range of voices making such allegations – from the Hamas-controlled Gaza Ministry of Health, and Muslim clerics, to US far left activists and European self-described human rights groups – illustrates the persistency of this age-old antisemitic canard across the religious, geographic and political spectrums.

To our modern ears it might sound inconceivable that anyone could possibly believe such nonsense, let alone repeat it.

Ephraim of Bonn, the great medieval chronicler of antisemitic persecution, wrote, “It was also reported in that letter that as the flames mounted high, the martyrs began to sing in unison a melody that began softly but ended with a full voice. The Christian people came and asked us ‘What kind of a song is this for we have never heard such a sweet melody?’ We knew it well, for it was the song: ‘It is incumbent upon us to praise the Lord of all.’”(“Aleinu” on the High Holidays is sung with a special melody.)

These martyrs died singing “Aleinu.”

This is what defiance looks like.

We are the descendants of those Jews. And we too will hold our heads high and defy Hamas and its slandering sycophants.

Attached in 🧵below, some examples of modern day 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝 - call it out. 𝔹𝕝𝕠𝕠𝕕 𝕃𝕚𝕓𝕖𝕝 - call it out.

Recalling Africa’s harrowing tale of its first slavers – The Arabs –

David Livingstone, the British missionary/traveller/explorer was so upset by the way the Arabs treated their African slaves that he wrote back home in 1870:

“In less than I take to talk about it, these unfortunate creatures — 84 of them, wended their way into the village where we were. Some of them, the eldest, were women from 20 to 22 years of age, and there were youths from 18 to 19, but the large majority was made up of boys and girls from 7 years to 14 or 15 years of age.

“A more terrible scene than these men, women and children, I do not think I ever came across. To say that they were emaciated would not give you an idea of what human beings can undergo under certain circumstances. “Each of them had his neck in a large forked stick, weigh ing from 30 to 40 pounds, and five or six feet long, cut with a fork at the end of it where the branches of a tree spread out. “T he women were tethered with bark thongs, which are, of all things, the most cruel to be tied with. Of course they are soft and supple when first striped off the trees, but a few hours in the sun make them about as hard as the iron round packing-cases. The little children were fastened by thongs to their mothers. “As we passed along the path which these slaves had travelled, I was shown a spot in the bushes where a poor woman the day before, unable to keep on the march, and likely to hinder it, was cut down by the axe of one of these slave drivers. “We went on further and were shown a p lace where a child lay. It had been been recently born, and its mother was unable to carry it from debility and exhaustion; so the slave trader had taken this little infant by its feet and dashed its brains out against one of the trees and thrown it in there.”

Such was the brutality meted out to the Africans by the Arabs.
⬇️ Over the years, global focus and discourse on slavery has concentrated on the Trans-Atlantic trade that featured American and European merchants. One other trade has however remained largely ignored, and at times has even been treated as a taboo subject, despite being a key component of African history owing to the devastating impact it has had on the continent, its generations and its people’s way of life.

The Arab Muslim slave trade, also known as the trans-Saharan trade or Eastern slave trade, is noted as the longest slave trade, having occurred for more than 1,300 years while taking millions of Africans away from their continent to work in foreign lands in the most inhumane conditions.



⬇️fairplanet.org/dossier/beyond…

The Jewish People of Iran

A🧵

Today, Iran is the world’s largest Shiite Muslim state, with a theocratic regime that espouses religious fanaticism. But religious diversity and tolerance were some of the cornerstones of ancient Persian history.
Before Islam, Zoroastrianism was the official state religion of several major Persian dynasties. Judaism predates Islam in modern-day Iran by over 1,000 years, and Jews are one of the oldest religious minority communities in the country, known until 1935 as Persia.
The first Jews arrived as Babylonian captives after the fall of the First Temple in 586 B.C.E., when the Babylonian king, Nebuchadnezzar, conquered Jerusalem.
When Cyrus the Great conquered Babylon in 539 B.C.E., he felt a divinely-inspired responsibility to enable his Jewish subjects to return to Jerusalem and build the Second Temple. The Book of Isaiah says that Cyrus was appointed by G-d, while the Book of Ezra offers an account of Cyrus’s words upon his decree of building the Second Temple as follows:
“All the kingdoms of the earth the Lord, the G-d of heaven, has given to me and he has also charged me to build him a house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah.”
Incredibly, Cyrus even sent his returning Jewish subjects sacred vessels from the First Temple (which had been destroyed decades earlier) & a large sum of money for rebuilding purposes. Cyrus, the founder of the Persian Empire, is mentioned in a number of ancient Jewish texts, and by allowing Jewish to return to Jerusalem, he brought the First Exile to an end.
The Cyrus Cylinder, an ancient clay cylinder, has been hailed as the earliest recorded declaration of human rights, and references Cyrus’s decree that all deported people and slaves be allowed to return to their homes.
Cyrus the Great was killed in battle in 529 B.C.E. and his son, Cambyses II, who was less friendly toward Jews, suspended construction of the Second Temple. But the work was resumed under King Darius, who would come to have a very special daughter-in-law, Queen Esther.
Queen Esther was the beloved wife of Darius’s son, King Xerxes, known in the Scroll of Esther as Ahasuerus. Iranian Jews believe that the tomb of Esther and Mordechai is located in the northern Iranian city of Hamadan, and it remains a site of Jewish prayer, especially during Purim, when some Iranian Jews make an annual pilgrimage there.
For centuries, Jewish as well as Muslim and Christian women in Iran have also visited the tomb to pray for fertility. Jewish worshipers often wrote notes and placed them near the tombs, similar to the practice at Jerusalem’s Western Wall.
In recent years, the building has been targeted by antisemites, including an arson attempt in 2020, but damage was not done to the tombs.
in October 2023, Revolutionary supporters of the Islamic Republic of Iran burned an Israeli flag on the compound of the holiest site for Jews in Iran, the Tomb of Esther and Mordechai in Hamadan. The regime forced its tiny Jewish community to support Tehran’s pro-Hamas policies.
The advent of Islam forever altered life for the Jews of ancient Persia until today. The Muslim conquest of Persia in the seventh century, including a battle in 642 that Arabs called the “victory of victories,” effectively brought an end to the overall safety and tolerance that Jews enjoyed under most of the Persian kings (the battle also ended 2,000 years of Persian independence).
As Islam rapidly spread, Muslim leaders were forced to find ways to deal with non-Muslim communities, including many Jews, some of whom comprised the majority of several cities. As restrictions and humiliations grew, the Pact of Umar made life even more difficult for Jews, who were forbidden from holding government office, serving in the military or even riding white donkeys (a symbol of purity). Persian Jews were also forced to wear yellow armbands; Christians wore them in blue.

When the Safavids came to power in the early 1500s, they introduced some of the harshest practices against non-Muslims and forcibly converted the country’s Sunni population to Shiism.
With Safavid rule, Jews and other non-Muslims faced severe discrimination based on false accusations of being “najes,” or ritually impure (thereby posing a threat of physical and ritual contamination for Muslims).
Jews were not allowed to leave their homes during rain or snow, lest the wind and water spread their contaminants; they were not allowed to touch foods at bazaars, build their doorways higher than those of Muslims, or even be offered something to eat, drink or smoke in a Muslim’s house, due to their perceived impurity.
As late as the 20th century, Jews who escaped Iran after the 1979 revolution have recounted stories of not being allowed to touch fresh fruit at outdoor markets, for example, or worse, being wrongly accused of touching foods by sellers who demanded that they pay for whatever they had allegedly touched and “contaminated.”
If you’ve ever benefited from the help of a Persian Jewish doctor, lawyer, entrepreneur, teacher, author, or philanthropist, it is partly due to the extraordinary kindness that French Jewish philanthropists offered the Jewish communities of the Middle East over 100 years ago through the famous Alliance Israélite Universelle. The Paris-based international Jewish organization (founded in 1860) believed that Jewish self-sufficiency and self-defense could best be achieved through education and vocational training.
Known simply by Jewish communities in the Middle East as “Alliance,” the organisation established French-language schools that offered Jews in countries such as Iran, Morocco, Iraq, Turkey, Tunisia, Syria and elsewhere their first exposure to secular studies, in addition to Jewish education. Alliance was particularly life-changing for Jewish children from poor families, and over 60 Alliance schools were founded in Iran, North Africa and the then-Ottoman-controlled Middle East, including Mandatory Palestine, years before the establishment of the modern state of Israel.
The presence of Alliance schools in Iran effectively helped bring Persian Jews out of poverty and into the educational and vocational opportunities of greater society. It also explains why so many of our parents, grandparents and great-grandparents spoke fluent French!
Today, Iran’s Supreme Leader uses Twitter to deny the Holocaust. But in the early 1940s, a Muslim Iranian diplomat named Abdol Hossein Sardari, who represented the government of the secular Shah (King) of Iran, saved thousands of Jews in Europe using his power at Iran’s diplomatic mission in Paris to issue passports and other travel documents. Through a great deal of painstaking talks with Nazi leaders, Sardari was able to secure exemptions from the notoriously deadly Nazi race laws for over 2,000 Iranian Jews who were in France at the time, claiming that they were Iranian and did not have blood ties to European Jewry.
He was eventually stripped of his diplomatic immunity and consul status. After the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran, Sardari lost his properties in Tehran as well as his ambassador’s pension. He died in England in 1981 without having asked for any recognition for his life-saving work during the Holocaust. In a 2004 ceremony, the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles posthumously recognized Sardari’s sacrifice and humanitarian work. A 2011 book, In the Lion's Shadow: The Iranian Schindler and His Homeland in the Second World War by Fariborz Mokhtari, recounts the amazing details of Sardari’s work.
The survivors were sheltered in tents on the former military barracks of the Iranian Air Force; the refugee camp eventually became known as the “Tehran Home for Jewish Children.” The Tehran Jewish community, as well as the Hadassah Women’s Zionist Organization and the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee supported the camp and the kids became known as the “Tehran Children.” The Jewish Agency eventually relocated over 860 children to moshavim (cooperative farming villages) and kibbutzim (collective farms), but the journey from Iran to then-Mandatory Palestine was arduous and exhausting. Several years later, some of those “Tehran Children” fought as youth in Israel’s War of Independence; 35 of them died as soldiers or civilians.
With Hitler’s troops dangerously close to Iran’s borders and Nazi propaganda (in Persian) infiltrating Iran through daily radio broadcasts, Iran nevertheless offered refuge to over 1,000 Jews, mostly children, from Poland during World War II. Many children (and adults) perished upon arrival in Iran due to illness and malnutrition, which explains why there remains a dedicated Polish section in a Jewish cemetery in Tehran today.
Under the rule of the Pahlavi dynasty, which began with Shah Reza Pahlavi (reigned 1925-1941) and continued under his son, Mohammad Reza Pahlavi (reigned 1941-1979), Iranian Jews experienced tremendous educational, vocational, cultural and social development. Both men sought to establish Iran as one of the most secular and Westernized states in the Middle East. Before the 1979 Islamic revolution that ousted Shah Mohammad Pahlavi and established a fanatic Shiite theocracy led by a radical cleric named Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, Iran’s Jewish population was over 100,000.
But after the 1979 revolution, over 90% of the country’s Jews fled. Those remaining Jews, whether in Tehran, Isfahan, Shiraz, Hamedan or elsewhere, were forced to comply with Muslim mandates that turned Iran into an official Shi’ite theocracy.
Beginning in the early 1980s and continuing today, Iranian females, whether 5 or 50, were forced to wear the hijab, or mandatory Islamic head covering for women; Jewish children at schools all over the country were forced to chant “Death to America!” and “Death to Israel,” even at schools that were founded by Jews before the 1979 revolution; and Zionism became a capital offense, punishable by death. Today, Jews are permitted to run synagogues and Jewish learning programs for youth, but portraits of Ayatollah Khomeini (and after his death, Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, Iran’s current Supreme Leader), as well as artistic renderings of the Shiite prophet, Ali, are usually found in Jewish centres and classrooms, due to the theocratic rule of the regime.
Roughly 8,500 Jews remain in Iran (from a population of over 100,000 before the 1979 Islamic revolution), with the largest communities in Tehran and Shiraz. They have access to synagogues, kosher butchers and food, mikvahs and several centers of learning. But the Jews in Iran today are extremely careful not to publicly identify with Israel in any way, as support of Zionism is punishable by death. Habib Elghanian, a wealthy Jewish industrialist and philanthropist, was charged with being a Zionist spy, due to charitable contributions he made to Israeli organizations, and assassinated in May 1979. His shocking death forced tens of thousands of Jews to flee Iran. Over the last four decades, other Iranian Jews have also been falsely accused of spying for Israel; some of them served prison sentences and were eventually freed, while others were not as lucky.
As for Israel, it is home to the largest population of Iranian Jews in the world, with roughly 250,000 Israelis today being descended from Iranian Jewry that left Iran in a first wave of migration to the Jewish state in the early 1950s and a second, smaller wave that escaped Iran during the 1979 revolution and made aliyah.

source : Tabby Refael A more in-depth look at Sardari:
Abdol Hossein Sardari, an Iranian diplomat stationed in Paris, went to extraordinary lengths to protect Iranian Jews from falling into the clutches of Nazi persecution.
Born in 1914, Sardari was a member of the distinguished Pahlavi family. He left Teheran as a teenager to continue his education in Europe, while in 1925 his family in Iran took control of the country in what was known as the start of the Pahlavi dynasty. In 1936 he graduated in Law from Geneva University in Switzerland and joined the diplomatic service, assigned to Iran's prestigious Paris embassy in 1940 - just as Hitler invaded.
France was carved up; the Nazis took over the north of the country and a pro-Nazi French regime under Marshal Philippe Petain in the south which established its headquarters in the town of Vichy. Most of the Iranian embassy staff fled to the relative calm of the Vichy sector, and while the Ambassador, Sardari's brother in law, returned to Iran, Sardari remained behind as Consul General, heading up a scaled back staff in Paris. It was in this position he was driven by a sense of duty and personal responsibility to assist several hundred Iranian Jews in the city, at risk of Nazi persecution.

Iran was a useful ally for Germany on the Soviet Union’s south-western border. The countries had an existing close relationship with Germany Iran’s biggest trading partner. However, ties deepened after 1933, with Hitler’s rise to power amid his worldview of racial hierarchy, where he cultivated the idea that Iranians, like the Germans, had superior blood. This view became policy when in 1936 Hitler declared Iran as an Aryan state. This served to massage the egos of Iranian nationalists. Diplomatic and business exchanges continued throughout the years of Hitler’s rule.
That same year, Dr. Hjalmar Schacht, the German Finance Minister and President of the Reich bank, paid a visit to Reza Shah the ruler of Iran, and a year later Hasan Esfandiari, the speaker of the Iranian parliament, visited Berlin.
Jews had been living in Persia for thousands of years with the earliest Jewish presence dating to the exile following the destruction of the first temple in 586 BCE. Under the new rule of the Pahlavi dynasty, which had ushered in a wave of modernization and new reforms, the Jewish community saw greater protection. As such Reza Shah informed Hitler that he considered Iranian Jews to be fully assimilated Iranians and would take offense to them being black listed in any way.
Despite his annoyance, Hitler begrudgingly accepted, at least in the short term while it was expedient for him that Iranian Jews not be officially classified as enemies of the Reich.
This move would be exploited to maximum effect by Sardari, now the Consul General in Paris, who eyed an opportunity to protect his countrymen living under German occupation.
One of his first steps was to help Jews hide behind the elevated status given to Iranians in general by issuing new passports which made no reference to their religion. Later he would make the case that although the Jews of Iran did follow some of the traditions of Moses, they had lived in Persia so long and become so assimilated into Persian culture, they were no longer racially distinguishable as Jews. He classified them under a new term, ‘Jugutus’ - a group who followed some Mosaic practices but were not actually racially Jewish.
“Only by virtue of their observance of the principal rites of Judaism,” Sardari wrote in 1940, could the Jugutus be confused with Jews. “By virtue of their blood, their language, and their customs, they are assimilated into the indigenous race and are of the same biological stock as their neighbors, the Persians and the Sartes (Uzbeks).”
Backed up with pseudo-scientific research, and playing on Hitler’s machinations towards Iran, as well as wining and dining Nazi officers in the city, Sardari managed to convince several senior Gestapo bureaucrats of his logic. Historian Fariborz Mokhtari explains that his efforts led to a directive that Iranian Jews in Paris be exempt from wearing the yellow-star of David.
“Sardari, with his legal education, diplomatic experience and considerable wit, exploited the classification courageously as far as it was possible, to the point of angering people such as Adolf Eichmann,” Mokhtari writes.
According to Mokhtari, Sardari issued hundreds and perhaps thousands of passports and forms of documentation for Iranian Jews who turned to him for help.
Ibrahim Morady, who had been a friend of Sardari and a recipient of his help, said of the diplomat, “He was told by his government to go back to Persia, but replied, 'I cannot leave a bunch of Iranian Jews, they will be deported.'” He added, “He was very, very active.”
He also helped Jews who weren’t of Iranian descent. Morady explained in one case that an affidavit issued by Sardari helped a Russian Jewish doctor in Paris who had been stopped and questioned by the Nazis. “It saved his life,” Morady said. “The affidavit said these people are not Jewish; they are Jugutus.”
Eliane Senahi Cohanim, Morady’s niece, recalls as a seven-year-old girl relying on the passports Sardari issued to her father, George Senahi, a prosperous textile merchant, to successfully escape the country.
The family had once previously tried to leave occupied France and return to Iran but had been turned back. Frightened, they first hid in the countryside before turning to Sardari in Paris - now with a heavy Gestapo presence - who issued them new documentation.
"I remember everywhere, when we were running away, they would ask for our passports, and I remember my father would hand them over and they would look at them. And then they would look at us. It was very, very scary."
"At the borders, my father was always really trembling," recalls Mrs Cohanim, who now lives in California.
Another Iranian Jew, Haim Sasson was a beneficiary of Sardari’s kindness, with the diplomat offering to hide his antique collection in the basement of his home after Sasson fled. After the war, Sardari sent word to Sasson that he could return to retrieve his property.
After the war, Sardari had to return to Teheran where he faced disciplinary action for issuing unwarranted Iranian passports. It took him ten years to clear his name, whereupon he retired from diplomatic service and moved to London where he had family.
In 1979's Iranian Revolution forces loyal to Ayatollah Khameini overthrew the Pahlavi dynasty ushering in a new era of religious Islamic rule. Amid the fighting, Sardari learned of the execution of his nephew who had been a leading politician and that much of his own property in Iran had been ransacked and destroyed.
As rumors began surfacing of his war time actions, some of those he saved stepped forward to testify on Sardari's behalf, while Sardari refrained from speaking publicly. Following an enquiry from Yad Vashem in 1978 Sardari wrote back simply, "As you may know, I had the pleasure of being the Iranian Consul in Paris during the German occupation of France, and as such it was my duty to save all Iranians, including Iranian Jews." He died three years later in 1981.
In 2004, the Wiesenthal Center posthumously honored Sardari with an award presented to his nephew, Fereydoun Hoveyda, a previous Iranian ambassador to the UN during the 1970s. The ceremony was attended by the late Ibrahim Morady, who finally had a chance to express his thanks to the courageous diplomat who saved his life.

source : Adam Ross

Let’s talk about Yishuv Kehilati יישוב קהילתי which is a type of town or village in Israel and in Judea & Sameria (West Bank.) they are referred to by western media as ‘settlements’ which is actually an incorrect translation of the words. For the sake of this article I will use the western terminology so as not to confuse. However , be on notice that it is not the correct term.
I have addressed the term 'West Bank’ in the thread :

A 🧵

MYTH

Israeli 'settlements' are illegal.

FACT

On November 18, 2019, Secretary of State Michael Pompeo expressed the Trump administration’s position that “the establishment of Israeli civilian 'settlements' in the West Bank is not per se inconsistent with international law.”1 The media inaccurately described this as a reversal of longstanding American policy. In truth, the record is more complicated.

Jews have lived in Judea and Samaria—the West Bank—since ancient times. They were prohibited from living in the territories only during Jordan’s occupation from 1948 to 1967. Jews began to settle in the area again after it was captured by Israeli forces in the defensive war fought in 1967.

The idea that these Jewish communities are illegal derives primarily from UN resolutions and the International Court of Justice (ICJ), an arm of the UN. The UN does not make legal determinations, only political ones tainted by the overwhelming anti-Israel majority. The ICJ “does not have jurisdiction over all disputes between UN member-states,” according to the Congressional Research Service. In fact, “with the exception of ‘advisory opinions,’ which are non-binding, the ICJ may only resolve legal disputes between nations that voluntarily agreed to its jurisdiction.”

Opinions of the ICJ are routinely ignored by the countries they are directed at, and the Europeans would never accept the idea that they trump the decisions of their judiciaries. Likewise, the United States, Russia, and China never signed the treaty establishing the court and do not accept its jurisdiction.

Israel does not recognize the court’s jurisdiction on the settlement issue. Like other democracies, Israel has an independent judiciary. As Pompeo noted, its Supreme Court has “confirmed the legality of certain settlement activities and has concluded that others cannot be legally sustained.”

Legal scholars dispute the ICJ opinion that the settlements violate international law. Stephen Schwebel, formerly president of the ICJ, notes that a country acting in self-defense may seize and occupy territory when necessary to protect itself. Schwebel also observes that a state may require security measures to ensure its citizens are not menaced again from that territory as a condition for its withdrawal.

Furthermore, UN Security Council Resolution 242 gives Israel the legal right to be in the West Bank. According to Eugene Rostow, a former undersecretary of state for political affairs in the Johnson administration, “Israel is entitled to administer the territories” it acquired in 1967 until “a just and lasting peace in the Middle East” is achieved.

The United States has not regarded Israeli settlements as illegal. The oft-cited exception is the opinion of State Department legal adviser Herbert Hansell in the Carter administration. He argued that establishing settlements in the “occupied territories,” which included the West Bank, the Gaza Strip, the Sinai Peninsula, and the Golan Heights, is “inconsistent with international law.” This conformed to the views of President Carter at the time, who was critical of the Israeli settlement policy. Legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich noted, however, that Hansell said the state of occupation would end if Israel entered into a peace treaty with Jordan, which it did in 1994. Nevertheless, the State Department never updated the memo.

Ronald Reagan rejected Hansell’s opinion of settlements. On February 3, 1981, he said, “I disagreed when the previous Administration referred to them as illegal; they’re not illegal.”

Secretary of State James Baker was asked if the Bush administration regarded the settlements as illegal, and his answer was, “this is not our policy.”

The Obama policy has also been mischaracterized. Secretary of State John Kerry and President Barack Obama were very critical of Israel’s settlement policy, but Kerry did not call them “illegal”; he said they were “illegitimate.” His only statement regarding their “illegality” was when he mentioned “settler outposts that are illegal under Israel’s own laws.” Obama abstained rather than veto the UN Security Council resolution labeling settlements illegal, which was generally interpreted as an endorsement of that view; however, it did not affect U.S. policy since he left office shortly thereafter.

In response to criticism that the Trump administration’s decision on the legality of settlements would harm the peace process, which at the time was moribund, Pompeo said the Carter formulation “hasn’t advanced the cause of peace.”

By making explicit that the settlements are not illegal, the United States sent a message to the Palestinians and their supporters that their misinterpretation of international law cannot be used to coerce Israel to capitulate to their demands. A change in Israel’s settlement policy will only come if that is the will of the Israeli people and advances the peace process.

MYTH*

'Settlements’ are an obstacle to peace.

FACT

Settlements have never been an obstacle to peace.

From 1949 to 1967, when Jews were forbidden to live on the West Bank, Arab leaders refused to make peace with Israel.
From 1967 to 1977, the Labor Party established only a few strategic settlements, yet Arab leaders were unwilling to agree to peace with Israel.
The fact that a Likud government committed to greater settlement activity took power in 1977 did not stop Egypt from signing a peace treaty with Israel or Prime Minister Menachem Begin from removing the Jewish settlements in the Sinai.
Israel froze settlement building for three months in 1978, hoping the gesture would entice other Arabs to join the Camp David peace process, but none did.
In 1994, Jordan signed a peace agreement with Israel, and settlements were not an issue.
Between June 1992 and June 1996, under Labor Party–led governments, the Jewish population in the territories grew by approximately 50%. This rapid growth did not prevent the Palestinians from signing the Oslo accords in September 1993 or the Oslo II agreement in September 1995. Those agreements left the question of settlements for final status negotiations and did not put any restrictions on them in the interim.
In 2000, Prime Minister Ehud Barak offered to dismantle dozens of settlements, but the Palestinians still would not agree to end the conflict.
In 2005, Israel evacuated all Jewish settlements in the Gaza Strip and four in Northern Samaria, but terror attacks continued.
In 2008, Prime Minister Ehud Olmert offered to withdraw from approximately 94% of the West Bank, but the deal was rejected.
In 2010, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu froze settlement construction for ten months, and the Palestinians refused to negotiate until the period was nearly over. After agreeing to talk, they walked out when Netanyahu ended the freeze and had still not returned to negotiations by August 2022.
The settlements do not displace Arabs living in the territories. The media sometimes gives the impression that several hundred Palestinians are forced to leave for every Jew who moves to the West Bank. The truth is that most settlements have been built in uninhabited areas, and even the handful established in or near Arab towns did not force any Palestinians to leave.

Contrary to Palestinian-inspired hysteria about settlement expansion, only five settlements were built in the 2017, work began on the first new settlement in 20 years.

Settlement activity may stimulate peace because it forces the Palestinians to reconsider the view that time is on their side. “The Palestinians now realize,” said Bethlehem Mayor Elias Freij, “that time is now on the side of Israel, which can build settlements and create facts, and that the only way out of this dilemma is face-to-face negotiations.”

Many Israelis question the wisdom of expanding settlements. Some consider them provocative; others worry that the settlers are particularly vulnerable and note they have been targets of repeated terrorist attacks. To defend them, many soldiers are deployed who would otherwise be training and preparing for a potential future war. Some Israelis also object to the money that goes to these communities and special subsidies provided to make housing more affordable. Still, others feel the settlers are providing the first line of defense and developing land that rightfully belongs to Israel.

The disposition of settlements is a matter for negotiations. The question of where the final border will be between Israel and a Palestinian entity will likely be influenced by the distribution of these Jewish towns in Judea and Samaria (the border with Gaza was unofficially defined following Israel’s withdrawal). Israel wants to incorporate as many Jews as possible within its borders, while the Palestinians want to expel all Jews from any territory they control.

Ezoic
If Israel withdraws unilaterally or as part of a political settlement, many settlers will face expulsion from their homes or voluntary resettlement in Israel with financial compensation.

The impediment to peace is not the existence of Jewish communities in the disputed territories but the Palestinians’ unwillingness to coexist with Israel instead of replacing it.

In the meantime, despite their complaints, thousands of Palestinians work in settlements.

Settlement Growth Over Time

MYTH

‘Settlements’ violate the Geneva Convention.

FACT

The Fourth Geneva Convention prohibits the forcible transfer of people of one state to the territory of another state that it has occupied due to war. The Convention was never meant to apply to a case like the settlements. Morris Abram, one of its drafters, said they were concerned with the types of crimes committed by the Nazis, such as the forcible eviction of Jews for purposes of mass extermination.

This is in no way relevant to the settlement issue. Jews are not being forced to go to the West Bank; on the contrary, they are voluntarily moving back to places where they, or their ancestors, once lived before being expelled by others.

The International Court of Justice’s opinion about the illegality of settlements was based on a fallacious interpretation of the Fourth Geneva Convention. The ICJ presupposes that Israel is now occupying the land of a sovereign country; however, as former Israeli Ambassador to the UN Dore Gold notes, “there was no recognized sovereign over the West Bank prior to Israel’s entry into the area.” Jordan had previously occupied the area.

A country cannot occupy territory to which it has sovereign title; hence, the correct term for the area is “disputed territory,” which does not confer greater rights to Israel or the Palestinians. The Palestinians never had sovereignty in the West Bank, whereas the Jews did for hundreds of years.

“The Jewish right of settlement in the area is equivalent in every way to the right of the local population to live there,” according to Professor Eugene Rostow, former undersecretary of state for political affairs.

Legal scholar Eugene Kontorovich argues that “Israel has the strongest claim to the land” because “international law holds that a new country inherits the borders of the prior geopolitical unit in that territory. Israel was preceded by the League of Nations Mandate for Palestine, whose borders included the West Bank.”

Adam Baker, a former legal adviser to Israel’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, adds that the “Oslo Accords instituted an agreed legal regime that overrides any other legal framework, including the 1949 Fourth Geneva Convention.”

The effort to apply the Convention to Israel reflects a clear double standard. Kontorovich notes that “the significant migration of settlers into an occupied territory under the auspices of the occupying power is a ubiquitous feature of prolonged territorial control.” He adds that no one has ever been prosecuted for violating the Convention and, except for a few sentences in an advisory opinion by the International Court of Justice, “its interpretation has been confined to academic and political statements – entirely within the particular context of Israel.”

MYTH

Israel must dismantle all the ‘settlements’ for peace.

FACT

When serious negotiations begin over the final status of the West Bank, battle lines will be drawn over which settlements should be incorporated into Israel and which must be evacuated. In August 2005, Prime Minister Ariel Sharon acknowledged that “not all the settlements of today in Judea and Samaria will remain,”while leaked Palestinian negotiating documents indicate the Palestinians were prepared to accept that some settlements would be incorporated into Israel.

In Gaza, Israel intended to withdraw completely; no settlements were viewed as vital to Israel for economic, security, or demographic reasons. The situation in the West Bank is completely different because Jews have strong historical and religious connections to the area stretching back centuries. Moreover, the West Bank is an area with strategic significance because of its proximity to Israel’s heartland, and roughly one-quarter of Israel’s water resources are located there.

The disengagement from Gaza involved only 21 settlements and approximately 8,500 Jews. Today, nearly 500,000 Jews live in 128 communities on the West Bank. More than 40% of these settlements have fewer than 1,000 citizens, 23% have fewer than 500, and only 13% have more than 5,000. Approximately 71% of the Jews in the West Bank live in five settlement “blocs,” four of which are near the 1949 Armistice Line – the “Green Line” (it is incorrect to refer to a 1967 border). Another 330,000 live across Green Line in East Jerusalem.

these are large communities with thousands of residents. Evacuating them would be the equivalent of dismantling major American cities such as Annapolis, Maryland; Olympia, Washington; or Carson City, Nevada.

Ma’ale Adumim is not a recently constructed outpost on a hilltop; it is a 46-year-old suburb of Israel’s capital, barely three miles (five km.) outside Jerusalem’s city limits, that is popular because it is clean, safe, and close to where many residents work. It is also the third-largest Jewish city in the territories, with a population of more than 40,000. Approximately 10,000 people live in surrounding settlements included in the Ma’ale bloc.

The Gush Etzion Bloc consists of 13 communities with a population of roughly 40,000, just ten minutes from Jerusalem. Jews lived in this area before 1948, but the Jordanian Legion destroyed the settlements and killed 240 women and children during the 1948 War. After Israel recaptured the area in 1967, descendants of those early settlers reestablished the community. The city of Betar Illit, with nearly 70,000 residents, is part of this bloc.

The Givat Ze’ev bloc includes five communities just northwest of Jerusalem. Givat Ze’ev, with a population of more than 20,000, is the largest.

Modiin Illit is a bloc with four communities. The city of Modiin Illit is the largest in all the disputed territories, with more than 83,000 people situated just over the Green Line, about 23 miles (37 km.) northwest of Jerusalem and the same distance east of Tel Aviv.

Ariel, with a population of more than 20,000, is now the heart of the second most populous bloc of settlements. The city is just 25 miles (40 km.) east of Tel Aviv and 31 miles (50 km.) north of Jerusalem. Ariel and the surrounding communities expanded Israel’s narrow waist, which was just 9 miles (15 km.) wide before 1967, and ensures that Israel has a land route to the Jordan Valley in case Israel needs to fight a land war to the east. It is more controversial than the other consensus settlements because it is the furthest from the Green Line, extending approximately 12 miles (19 km.) into the West Bank. Nevertheless, Ariel is expected to be annexed to Israel if a peace agreement is reached.

Most peace plans envision Israel annexing sufficient territory – 4 to 6% – to incorporate 75–80% of the Jews in the West Bank. In exchange, the Palestinian entity would get the same amount of land from Israeli territory (possibly in the Negev adjacent to the Gaza Strip). Based on the figures in the table above, only 71% of the settlers would be within Israel’s borders if these five blocs were annexed. Roughly one-third of the remaining Jews are expected to move into Israeli territory, bringing the total to 80%. Israel would still have to evacuate approximately 100,000 people.

This would involve another gut-wrenching decision that many settlers and their supporters will oppose with even greater ferocity than the Gaza disengagement. It is hard to imagine any Israeli government agreeing to such a mass transfer of its citizens.
MYTH

Israel plans to annex all the settlements.

FACT

Israel could have annexed the entire West Bank or the settlements at any time since 1967 but has not done so. It is still a possibility, but those are just two options that have been discussed for the disposition of the West Bank. Others include:

Israel unilaterally delineates its border and determines which settlements it will annex.
Israel establishes its border along the route of its security fence, incorporating the settlers on its side within Israel and forcing those on the other side to move inside the border.
Israel annexes the settlement blocs.

Israel annexes the settlements in the Jordan Valley.
Israel annexes the settlements in the Jordan Valley and the blocs.

Israel negotiates a peace treaty with the Palestinians that specifies which Jewish communities will remain intact within the mutually agreed border of Israel and which, if any, will be evacuated.
In 2020, the Netanyahu government considered applying Israeli sovereignty to some or all the settlements but decided not to as a condition for the United Arab Emirates and Bahrain to establish diplomatic relations with Israel.

MYTH

Settlements preclude the creation of a contiguous Palestinian state.

FACT

As the map attached indicates, it is possible to create a contiguous Palestinian state in the West Bank even if Israel incorporates the major settlement blocs. The total area of these communities is less than 2% of the West Bank. A kidney-shaped state linked to the Gaza Strip by a secure passage would be contiguous. Some argue that the E1 project linking Ma’ale Adumim to Jerusalem would cut off East Jerusalem, but that is not necessarily true, as Israel has proposed constructing a four-lane underpass to guarantee free passage between the West Bank and the Arab sections of Jerusalem.

The map also illustrates that Israel would have its contiguity interrupted by the passageway between Gaza and the West Bank.

MYTH

There are no Palestinian settlements.

FACT

Whenever Israel announces plans to build in the West Bank, an international furor erupts with false claims about their illegality. Meanwhile, the world was silent when the Palestinian Authority announced plans to violate the Oslo Accords unilaterally by canceling the West Bank’s division into Area A, B, and C and treating the entire area as sovereign Palestinian territory. Even before that announcement, the Palestinians built settlements in Area C, where Israel must approve any construction.

Illegal settlements and infrastructure have spread across 250 Area C locations occupying more than 2,000 acres. The PA has offered incentives, such as tax exemptions, discounts for vehicle registration, and jobs for those who settle in Area C.
While Israel is pilloried anytime it suggests moving Bedouins from their encampments to another location or permanent housing, nothing is said about the PA’s efforts to do the same.

European countries, which routinely criticize Israeli settlements, provide funding for constructing the illegal Palestinian settlements. “European countries – individually, and through the European Union – have pumped hundreds of millions of euros annually into scores of illegal state-building and related projects – called Area C ‘interventions,’” according to investigative journalist Edwin Black.

People who would ordinarily be concerned about water and other environmental issues have ignored the Palestinian building projects, which Black notes “are not natural Arab urban growth or urban sprawl.” He says they are meant to “carve up Area C, sometimes surround Jewish villages, and sometimes push onto Israeli nature or military reserves.”

Palestinians have complained about the slow process of obtaining building permits from the Civil Administration and the high rejection rate. Black related that the number of applications has dropped because the Palestinians “deny Israel’s right to issue them” and “just start building.”

The courts hamstring Israel’s efforts to stop the illegal construction. Despite lacking citizenship, Palestinians can petition Israeli courts, including the Supreme Court, and do so with the help of well-funded NGOs. A military spokesman told Black, “It can take years to decide …. Meanwhile, they are still building. We can’t do anything about it.” If the court ultimately rules in Israel’s favor, the government is denounced by critics for demolishing the illegal structures.

Another troubling aspect of the Europeans’ funding is their reluctance to look carefully at the organizations they are funding to build up Area C, which includes supporters of the anti-Semitic BDS movement with connections to terror organizations. Black reports, for example, that European governments have funded the Union of Agricultural Work Committees, which is linked to the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine.

Consider the impact on the peace process of the European-backed activities by the PA. By building settlements, the Palestinians are trying to prevent Israel from creating a contiguous area for its future borders, precisely what Israel’s critics accuse it of doing. The Palestinians often complain that a future state would look like Swiss cheese because of the geographic distribution of Jewish communities, but they are creating the holes themselves by establishing isolated settlements separated from the main population centers and nearer Jewish towns. Moreover, by claiming sovereignty in Area C, the Palestinians have violated the Oslo Accords, further undermining Israeli confidence that they can be trusted to honor the terms of any future agreement.

New towns established by the Palestinians in the West Bank should be referred to as “settlements” and condemned with the same ferocity as critics of Israeli construction for creating “facts on the ground.” The West Bank is disputed territory; the Palestinians have no sovereign rights there today, nor have they had any in the past which would justify their incursion into Israeli-controlled territory. Those who constantly bemoan the disappearing two-state solution and unilateral actions should be outraged by the Palestinian campaign of creeping annexation and brazen efforts to predetermine the border of any possible state by their illegal construction in areas that Israelis have an equal right to claim as their own.

MYTH

The E1 project threatens the establishment of a contiguous Palestinian state.

FACT

Initially formulated by Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin just months before his assassination, the EI plan is to populate the roughly 4.6 square mile (12 sq. km.) valley between Jerusalem and Ma’ale Adumim, which Palestinians agree will be part of Israel in any future agreement. This “settlement” of some 50,000 people is essentially a suburb just three miles (5 km.) outside the capital. The E1 project envisions the construction of three residential neighbourhoods and a commercial-industrial zone. Critics claim the E-1 project would cut off East Jerusalem from the rest of the West Bank and doom a two-state solution.

In one case, Italy began to openly support the illegal Bedouin encampment of Khan al-Ahmar, including by moving the residents from tents to new structures and building a school for all the Bedouins in the vicinity. The site is located near E-1 to block Israel’s plans for the area. Israel’s Supreme Court approved the demolition of the illegal structures and the relocation of the Bedouins; however, international protests and the Israeli elections in 2019 delayed implementing the decision. Still undecided, the government asked for more time to formulate a position in March 2022 and still had not taken any action by August.

Source : Jewish Virtual Library.1990s.In From Israel’s perspective the project is critical for the long-term security of Jerusalem and necessary to prevent Ma’ale Adumim from becoming an isolated island surrounded by a Palestinian entity. To solve the issue of contiguity, Israel has proposed a bypass road to allow Palestinians to travel from north to south in the West Bank without security checkpoints.

The Israeli prime minister announces his intention to complete the plan every few years. Usually, within days, he backtracks under pressure from the United States. The project remains on the drawing board, and much of the infrastructure is already in place, but the project remains in limbo.

Meanwhile, the Palestinians have been furiously building without opposition from abroad to prevent E1 from being completed. The EU illegally finances hundreds of structures in the Adumim area, which is part of Area C, which the Oslo Accords put under the sole control of Israel.

The financial world is bracing for a significant upheaval following Saudi Arabia's decision not to renew its 50-year petro-dollar deal with the United States, which expired on Sunday, 9 June, 2024.
🧵 The lapsed security agreement, signed by the USA and Saudi Arabia on 8 June 1974 - establishes 2 joint commissions, one on economic co-operation & the other on Saudi Arabia's military needs, & was said to have heralded an era of close co-operation between the 2 countries.
⬇️

The organisations leading the pro-Hamas demonstrations in Britain since the outbreak of Operation Iron Swords :

A 🧵

terrorism-info.org.il/en/the-organiz… Pro-Palestinian protesters are backed by a surprising source: Biden’s biggest donors
Some of the most outspoken groups against Biden and Israel get funding from foundations attached to some of the biggest names in Democratic circles.

politico.com/news/2024/05/0…

Dear University students , when a tyrant says you are on the right side of history , you must know that you are being played by a sinister & nefarious force .

A thread 🧵 Despite UN warnings, Iran’s execution of Kurds and political dissidents continues unchecked.
⬇️

When the war started , I felt immense sorrow. Not only for Israel but for the civilians in Gaza caught up in the conflict.
I tried very hard to remain focussed on my own moral compass & keep my empathy in check . As each day passed , I have seen a flood on social media & the streets of the most disgusting & hateful individuals.
With each foul thing they spew , the less empathy I can muster .

As the civil war enters its 2nd year, Sudan’s two factions remain locked in a deadly power struggle. Since the conflict began on April 15, 2023, almost 15000 people have been killed & more than 8.2 million have been displaced, the worst displacement crisis in the world.
⬇️ Nearly 2 million displaced Sudanese have fled to unstable areas in Chad, Ethiopia, and South Sudan, overrunning refugee camps and prompting concerns that Sudanese refugees could soon attempt to enter Europe.
⬇️

No matter how unlikely it may seem, radical Leftists and Islamists have come closer in recent years. Drawing on substantial ideological interchange, and operating at both gov and non-gov levels, the 2 movements are building a Common Front against the West .
⬇️ Radical Leftists and Islamists have utilised the master frame of anti-globalisation/anti-capitalism & the master frame of anti-colonialism/anti-imperialism to elicit support from the widest possible range of people. The emerging Red-Green alliance presents a complex challenge
⬇️

For over a century, the Iranian people have struggled toward democracy. During the last 40 years, the Iranian people have been subjugated by an oppressive theocracy called the “Islamic Republic,” with a religious “Supreme Leader” overseeing all aspects of Iranian life.
⬇️ The Islamic coup in Iran shook the world in 1979, with currents that continue to be felt today. Decades later, the details of this watershed event—which redrew the geopolitical order in many ways—are worth recalling.
⬇️

Regarding paragliders: Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff held the position of head of the European Union's mission to the West Bank and Gaza Strip until August and was the one who introduced Gazans to paragliders, which Hamas terrorists used to infiltrate Israeli territory during 10/7
⬇️ Sven Kühn von Burgsdorff paraglided off the coast of Gaza in the summer, telling Palestinians he was "showing them a way forward." On Oct. 7, Hamas terrorists used paragliders to infiltrate Israel.
⬇️

israelhayom.com/2023/10/15/for…

Calls for action grew louder in Iran on Wednesday, following an announcement that Iranian rapper Toomaj Salehi has been sentenced to death for supporting anti-Islamic regime protests in Iran in 2022.
⬇️ Toomaj Salehi broke out of the underground rap scene in Iran with his 2021 single, Rat Hole, in which he attacked those Iranians – who choose to side with the regime or not to use their platforms to augment or relay the voice of struggling and dissenting Iranians.
⬇️