Showing posts with label Palestinian Arab. Show all posts

Sunday, February 28, 2016

VIDEO: A Palestinian Arab Gets Real About Israel - Israel Today

VIDEO: A Palestinian Arab Gets Real About Israel

Sunday, February 28, 2016 | Israel Today Staff

Mark Halawa is a Palestinian Arab who, like most of his people, was raised to hate the Jews and see Israel as his enemy.

After immigrating with his family to Canada, a place where he could finally examine the issues free of prejudice and intimidation, Mark found the truth to be a little different than what he’d been taught.

That led him to actually go study in Israel and experience the situation first hand.

“I saw civilized and equal government treatment, regardless of race or religion,” Mark exclaims. “After four years of living in Israel, I decided to share my experiences with other Arabs.”

Watch here: Palestinian Arab & Israel

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Tuesday, December 15, 2015

Baby Among 11 Hurt in Jerusalem Ramming Attack Monday, December 14, 2015 | Israel Today Staff

Baby Among 11 Hurt in Jerusalem Ramming Attack

Monday, December 14, 2015 | Israel Today Staff

Topics:

Terrorism

A Palestinian Arab terrorist on Monday rammed his car into a crowd of people standing at a bus stop near the entrance to Jerusalem, wounding 11, including an 18-month-old child.

The attack occurred near the “chords” bridge adjacent to Jerusalem’s Central Bus Station around mid-afternoon.

Nine of the victims were said to have suffered light injuries, while two, including the baby, were moderately wounded.

Two bystanders, a soldier and an armed civilian, witnessed the attack and quickly shot the terrorist dead before he could exit the vehicle and continue his attack.

Police found an axe in the vehicle, indicating that the assailant, a 21-year-old man from the Jerusalem suburb of Beit Hanina, did indeed intend to hack and stab additional victims following the ramming.

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Sunday, January 11, 2015

Obama Admin Deals Demoralizing Blow to Palestinian Cause

Sunday, January 11, 2015 | Israel Today Staff

Topics:

Peace Process

While staunchly backing the establishment of an independent Palestinian Arab state, the Obama Administration last week dealt a demoralizing blow to Palestinian efforts to achieve that goal unilaterally.

Shortly after losing a UN Security Council vote to recognize a Palestinian state and demand a full, unconditional Israeli withdrawal from said state, the Palestinian Authority threatened to become the newest member of the International Criminal Court, where it would no doubt file copious lawsuits against Israel and its leaders.

But US State Department Spokesperson Jen Psaki reminded the Palestinian Authority that it isn’t a state, and therefore can’t join the ICC.

“The United States does not believe that the state of Palestine qualifies as a sovereign state and does not recognize it as such and does not believe that it is eligible to accede to the Rome Statute,” Psaki said at a Washington press conference.

She went on to warned that the US Congress would now deliberate on whether or not to halt $400 million in annual financial aid to the Palestinian Authority.

Former US Middle East negotiator Dennis Ross encouraged European powers to take a similar stand against ongoing Palestinian intransigence if they are serious about facilitating a genuine peace.

In a New York Times op-ed, Ross noted that the Palestinian Authority had rejected three separate peace deals - in 2000, 2008, and 2014 - and that the Palestinian leadership had unfortunately been conditioned to believe it could get everything for nothing.

“Palestinian political culture is rooted in a narrative of injustice; its anti-colonialist bent and its deep sense of grievance treats concessions to Israel as illegitimate. Compromise is portrayed as betrayal,” he explained. “If saying yes is costly and doing nothing isn’t, why should we expect the Palestinians to change course?”

Ross insisted that the Palestinians must start suffering consequences for so many failed peace efforts.

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Tuesday, December 9, 2014

WATCH: Arab Muslim Discovers He's a Jew

Tuesday, December 09, 2014 | Israel Today Staff

Topics:

Israel

Mordechai Halawa’s touching story of growing up a Kuwaiti Muslim with Palestinian Arab ancestry only to discover he’s actually a Jew has been making the rounds in the Israeli media over the past week.

Born Mumtaz Halawa, he always knew his grandmother had been a Jew who converted to Islam in order to marry his grandfather, an Arab from what is now the Palestinian Authority-controlled town of Nablus (biblical Shechem).

In Islamic law, someone born to a Muslim father is, therefore, a Muslim. Halawa never thought differently of himself, despite knowing his grandmother’s background.

That was until a Jewish man in Canada, where Halawa had gone to study, informed him that Jewishness is not primarily a religion, but rather an ethnicity that cannot be erased by conversion to one religion or another.

“I felt that until that day I was in a dream world, and then someone smacked me and I woke up,” Halawa told Orot TV.

Having come to a sudden realization that he was the enemy he was raised to hate, Halawa changed his first name to Mordechai, immigrated to Israel, began living as a Jew, married a Jewish girl, and is proudly hopeful that the children he will one day have will be Israelis.

A number of research projects in recent years have revealed that Halawa might not be alone, and that a large percentage of what are considered to be “Palestinian Arabs” have at least some Jewish heritage.

The narration in the video below is in Hebrew, but Halawa speaks in English throughout (besides the opening seconds, when he is speaking to friends in Arabic):

PHOTO: Halawa standing outside the walls of the Old City in Jerusalem, where he lives today. (Orot TV)

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Sunday, February 28, 2016