I particularly noted this line in the letter: We think it's important to hear from experts on our issue that speak from many perspectives, even if we don't necessarily agree with everything they have to say. In that spirit, I offered myself to J Street as a guest speaker and wrote them my own letter:
Yisrael Medad is the Director of Information Resources at the Menachem Begin Heritage Center, was previously the Director of Israel's Media Watch
via blogs.jpost.com
J Street and J Street U are sponsoring a number of events around the country featuring UNRWA’s Gaza Director John Ging.
Are these people aware of the seriousness of what they are doing in hosting Ging?
With assistance from friends, I have learned that during Operation Cast Lead in Gaza in 2009, Ging hid the fact that Hamas fighters were firing weapons near a UN school compound that was hit by IDF fire, and also fed the propaganda claims of deaths inside the school. Only after the war did he admit that there were fighters right outside the grounds (more or less where the IDF fired) and that nobody was killed in the school. (CAMERA has a summary of the media's accounts, including some of Ging's statements.) In NGO Monitor's report on NGO mis-statements about the incident, it is shown how Ging's statements were responsible for the demonization of Israel on this incident.
A quick Google search will show similar occurrences of Ging repeating the Palestinian narrative of demonizing Israel and de-legitimizing self-defense measures. He also has some statements in support of flotillas into Gaza. (See, for example, here, and also here and as well, here, too).
David Bedein’s site provides additional information like here and here.
There are these reports.
But, to be fair, Ging was threatened by Hamas.
As an historical aside, UNRWA was, right after its establishment, responsible also for Jewish refugees from the area of the Palestine Mandate, which included Judea, Samaria and Gaza. However, according to a memo from the UN I received in October 2003, it was in July 1952 that UNRWA was requested by Israel to cease its assistance to the Jewish refugees of Palestine which numbered about 17,000 "internally displaced Jews coming from the original mandate Palestine" and with other nationalities, the number Israel begin to assist independent from UNRWA was 19,000. If Israel had no so acted, after the 1967 war, it is conceivable that the UN would have had to assist in the rebuilding of Jewish communities in Gush Etzion (Kfar Etzion, Revadim, Tzurim and Massuot Yitzhak), north of Jerusalem (Atarot and Neveh Yaakov) and along the Dead Sea (Bet HaArava)
But now, to return to J Street’s Ging connection, a letter (I reproduce it below) relating to the John Ging lecture has come to my attention.
I particularly noted this line in the letter:
We think it's important to hear from experts on our issue that speak from many perspectives, even if we don't necessarily agree with everything they have to say.In that spirit, I offered myself to J Street as a guest speaker and wrote them my own letter:
via blogs.jpost.com
