The lies they tell....anti-Israel Christians that champion the Palestinian narrative.

This is an excerpt from the new book I am writing.
The title will be "The Lies They Tell." The sub-title will be "Exposing the lies They tell about Israel and why?"
I am publishing a snippet on my chapter on Christian anti-Israel activism to assist those who are challenging the horrifically false accusations being perpetrated in this Christmas/New Year period outside the St.James's Church in Piccadilly, London which brutalises Israel. 
There is dire need for the shining light of truth. I hope my future book will project that light. I promise it will fall harshly on those that demonise and delegitimise my country.

Christian support for the Palestinian cause this Christmas reminds us that Yasser Arafat defied the Christian tradition in Bethlehem, which had been respected and upheld under Israeli authority, by appointing a Muslim governor and engineered a Muslim takeover of the city council. 

He then put his stamp on this town by converting the Greek Orthodox monastery, next to the Church of the Nativity, into his official Bethlehem residence.

At great risk to his life, Pastor Naim Khoury, of the Bethlehem Baptists Church, exposed the developing threats to Christians within the territories controlled by the Palestinian Authority. 

“People are always telling Christians to convert to Islam.”

His ministry is based on love and non-violence. He is also a strong advocate for Zionism based on God’s land covenant with Israel through Abraham.

Because of his views, his church has been bombed fourteen times, and he has been shot three times. He has been threatened by the Palestinian Authority to close the doors of his church which they consider as “illegitimate.”

This brave Christian priest needs and deserves the active support of church leaders worldwide. Instead, they boycott him and pick on Israel for their wrath, ignoring the human rights crimes of the Palestinian leadership whom they openly support. How twisted is that?

Elias Freij, the Christian mayor of Bethlehem at the time of the Oslo Accords in 1993, warned Israeli Prime Minister, Yizhak Rabin, to maintain control over his town. “Bethlehem will become a town of churches devoid of Christians if you transfer control to the Palestinian Authority.” 

Israel caved in to international pressure, and the mayor’s warning became the current Christian nightmare.

Since the Hamas takeover in Gaza, Christians have fled in droves from the Strip. Incited by Islamic calls for action, Muslim Palestinians murdered their Christian neighbors. 

One victim was Rami Ayad, the owner of Gaza’s only Christian bookshop. The mob returned to burn down his business.

The Palestinian Authority and Hamas have grafted Shariah Law into their Charters and constitution. In such an unwelcoming environment is it any wonder that Christians feel threatened and flee?

But once a year, at Christmas, the Palestinian leadership cynically trot out a deformed tale of Jesus for political and propaganda purposes. Their tale is not one of peace and goodwill to all men. Rather it is one of Jew-hatred achieved by hijacking the Christmas message and converting Christ into a Palestinian.

It is simply baffling how and why Christian leaders ignore the fate of their co-religionists living under such harsh Palestinian control that is guilty of the worst human rights crimes and voluntarily champion the Palestinian cause, wrapped in Sharia, to assault the Jewish state.

CHRISTMAS HAS BEEN HIJACKED!

CHRISTMAS HAS BEEN HIJACKED TO BECOME POLITICAL WARFARE AGAINST ISRAEL.  ITS ORIGINAL SPIRITUAL MEANING SUCKED DRY, REPLACING A JEWISH JESUS WITH A FALSE PALESTINIAN NARRATIVE THAT DEMONISES AND DELEGITIMISES THE JEWISH STATE.

I HAVE BEEN HIGHLIGHTING HOW THIS TRANSLATES INTO ACTION AT CHRISTMAS TIME. IT MAKES FOR INTERESTING, BUT HARROWING, READING.  

IN IRELAND, THE PALESTINIAN SOLIDARITY CAMPAIGN IS SELLING CHRISTMAS CARDS SHOWING THREE WISE MEN DENIED ENTRY INTO BETHLEHEM BY A SECURITY BARRIER. ANOTHER CARD FEATURES A MADONNA AND CHILD DRAPED IN A PALESTINIAN FLAG, THEREBY FALSELY POLITICISING THE NATIVITY SCENE.

IN THE UK THERE ARE TWO PUBLIC DEMONSTRATIONS, IN LIVERPOOL AND LONDON.  PORTRAYING A FRAUDULENT MESSAGE THAT BRUTALISES ISRAEL.

THE AMOS TRUST IS DISTRIBUTING A ‘BETHLEHEM PACK’ TO TRY AND CAUSE CHURCHES TO TALK ABOUT THE CURRENT SITUATION IN BETHLEHEM AT CHRISTMAS EVENTS. OF COURSE, THEY WILL FAIL TO MENTION THE FLIGHT OF CHRISTIANS FROM BETHLEHEM SINCE ISRAEL HANDED OVER CONTROL TO THE PALESTINIAN AUTHORITY.

SINCE THEN THE CHRISTIAN POPULATION HAS DROPPED THERE FROM OVER 80% TO LESS THAN 15%. THEY PREFER, INSTEAD TO PUT OUT THE MAHMOUD ABBAS VERSION OF THE CHRISTMAS STORY. HIS MESSAGE IS THAT JESUS WAS A PALESTINIAN.

“In Bethlehem, more than 200 years ago, Jesus Christ was born, a Palestinian messenger who could become a guiding light for millions around the world. As we Palestinians strive for our freedom, two millenia later, we do our best to follow his example.”

IGNORING THE FACT THAT JESUS WAS NOT A PALESTINIAN MESSENGER, WHAT EXAMPLE ARE THE PALESTINIANS FOLLOWING? BUS BOMBINGS, SUICIDE BOMBERS, ROCKETS AGAINST CIVILIANS, PLANE HIJACKINGS?   HE GOES ON,

“Our prayers are with the churches and mosques of Jerusalem which remind the world of the Arab identity of our occupied capital.”

NOW THAT IS AN INTERESTING STATEMENT WELL WORTH EXAMINING. MAHMOUD ABBAS HAS PUBLICLY STATED THAT ANY PALESTINIAN STATE WILL BE ‘JUDENREIN’ CLEAR OF JEWS. IS THIS THE NATURE OF THE ‘PALESTINE’ THAT MANY CHRISTIAN LEADERS ARE SUPPORTING? 

ABBAS MENTIONS THE CHURCHES AND MOSQUES, BUT WHAT OF THE SYNAGOGUES.? HE FORGOT TO MENTION THEM, AS HE FAILED TO MENTION THE JEWISH TEMPLE TO WHICH JESUS CAME EACH YEAR TO PRAY. FOR HIM THEY DO NOT EXIST. TO ACKNOWLEDGE THIS WOULD BE TO ACKNOWLEDGE JESUS AS THE JEW THAT HE WAS WHEN HE MADE HIS PILGRIMAGE TO THE JEWISH CAPITAL ON THE JEWISH HOLY DAYS. WHEN WAS IT EVER A PALESTINIAN CAPITAL? NEVER!

IT IS AMAZING TO ME THAT CERTAIN STRANDS OF CHRISTIANITY SHARE AND THRIVE ON THIS FALSEHOOD.

PREVIOUSLY, DURING THE BRITISH METHODISTS ATTEMPT TO TURN THEIR ANTI-ISRAEL BOYCOTT CAMPAIGN INTO A CONSUMER PRODUCT QUESTIONAIRE, I QUESTIONED JUST HOW FAR THE METHODISTS HAD STRAYED FROM THE GUIDING PRINCIPLES OF THEIR FOUNDING FATHERS, JOHN AND CHARLES WESLEY. THESE BROTHERS DEEPLY BELIEVED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT COMMITMENT TO THE RETURN OF THE JEWS TO THE HOLY LAND. IT WAS ENSHRINED IN SEVERAL OF THEIR HYMNS;

““O that the chosen band might now their brethren bring

And gathered out of every land present to Zion’s King.

Of all the ancient race not one be left behind

But each impelled by secret grace his way to Canaan find!

We know it must be done for God hath spoke the word

All Israel shall their Saviour own to their first state restored.

Rebuilt by His command Jerusalem shall rise

Her temple on Moriah stand again, and touch the skies.”

HOW FAR THEY HAVE DRIFTED FROM THESE SENTIMENTS TO THE DOGMA OF TODAY SAYS MORE ABOUT THE METHODISTS THAN IT DOES ABOUT THE JEWISH STATE,  JUST AS THE HATEFUL ACTIONS OF CERTAIN CHURCH LEADERS SAYS MORE ABOUT THEM THAN IT DOES ABOUT ISRAEL, THE ONE NATION IN THE MIDDLE EAST WHERE THE CHRISTIAN POPULATION HAS RISEN.

HERE IS THE OPEN LETTER I WROTE IN RESPONSE TO CATHOLIC PREACHER, STEPHEN PITCHARD, WHO ENDORSED THE ANTI-ISRAEL CHRISTMAS EXHIBITION IN LIVERPOOL AND WHO REFUSED TO ALLOW AN ISRAELI JEWISH PERSPECTIVE TO THIS EVENT;.

Someone sent me your email regarding the refusal of Stephen Pritchard to have an Israeli perspective on the exhibition in Liverpool that demonises Israel.

It is particularly hurtful and troubling that he does so during the Christmas period.

I am not a Christian. I am a Jewish Israeli, but I would have thought that any caring and practicing Christian would have adopted an open heart, especially at this spiritual time.

If you are able to bring my message to Mr. Pritchard, and to others, it would be one of my role as founder of the Netanya Terror Victims Organisation, and my personal experience of Palestinian terror in  helping the victims of those who have, and are still, suffering from the handiwork of Palestinian terrorists in my hometown.

Netanya is a small coastal town perched on the clifftops of the Mediterranean Sea. Pritchard may recall the horrendous Passover Massacre. This took place at the Park Hotel, which is on those clifftops, when a Palestinian suicide bomber destroyed the lives of people, including two Holocaust survivors, who had gathered to celebrate the Jewish Passover.

We are located exactly 8 miles from the Arab town of Tulkarm. This is a 14 minute car ride due east from the main shopping mall that experienced two separate suicide bombings, one of which almost killed my wife.

These were just three of the many deadly attacks on innocent civilians perpetrated by Palestinians from Tulkarm and other Palestinian-controlled areas.

Tulkarm was a place where Israelis, including my family, used to buy groceries, household materials and goods. The Arabs from Tulkarm used to work in Netanya in our hotels, markets, shops, motor repair shops, and on our building site.

That was until they turned Tulkarm into a hotbed of Palestinian terror.

Netanya suffered over 50 murdered and more than 300 badly injured in a wave of Palestinian terror designed to eradicate the Jewish state in stages.

That was when Israel built a security fence. Since the erection of this fence Palestinian suicide bombing has been reduced to zero. No Israelis have been killed by Palestinian suicide bombers since we were forced to build this security barrier.

98% of that barrier is fence. There are small sections of high concrete wall. One such section is east of Netanya by Tulkarm. The reason for this high wall is to prevent Palestinians from shooting at the vehicles driving up and down Israel’s main 6 highway, as they used to do from the rooftops of their homes and mosques in Tulkarm, which is located next to this road..

So to have Pritchard support the notion that our security barrier, upon which we are dependent for our lives, is somehow a brutal act is shamefully wrong. And to have Pritchard refuse to hear the truth is troubling.

What is it in Pritchard that he will not allow the voice of truth to filter into his public exhibition?

Sadly, it says more about him than it does about Israel.

May I wish reasonable and open-minded Christians a very Happy Christmas, and may people like Pritchard use this season to do some much needed soul searching.

Barry Shaw

Founder of Netanya Terror Victims Organisation,

Netanya,

Israel.

BARRY SHAW IS ALSO THE SPECIAL CONSULTANT ON DELEGITIMIZATION ISSUES TO THE STRATEGIC DIALOGUE CENTER AT NETANYA ACADEMIC COLLEGE, ISRAEL. HE IS ALSO THE AUTHOR OF ‘ISRAEL RECLAMING THE NARRATIVE.’ www.israelnarrative.com

Don't blame overseas property buyers for the failings of the Israeli government.

Don’t blame overseas property owners for the failings of the Israeli government.

Original Thinking from Barry Shaw.

The Knesset Finance Committee approved doubling property taxes on Israeli properties owned by foreign buyers.  It is a governmental step that punishes overseas Jews who have the gall of buying luxury vacation homes in Israel.

Actually, it is a political gimmick to detract attention for the appalling decades- old failure of their housing policies by focusing the spotlight on fellow Jews who decided to invest their money in Israel rather than taking their families on vacations to Florida, the South of France, and Spain. How foolish could they be!

Yair Lapid, Israel’s Finance Minister, praised the tax approval claiming it would help solve the domestic housing crisis. He is wrong and short-sighted.

Jews, with a passionate love of Israel, are being treated by our politicians as if they are the evil owners of “ghost apartments.”  The very image depicts sinister money-grabbers rather than appreciate that they have invested much of their hard-earned money into Israel rather than other warmer and more welcoming locations. They would certainly be able to buy similar properties in Europe and America at far lower prices and not be burdened with the already high taxes, including municipal taxes (arnona), which will increase further as a penalty to force them to sell their property and flee our shores. Pity!

How can Gideon Sa’ar possibly imagine that wealthy overseas owners, who bought their expensive vacation properties in prime Israeli locations, upgraded them to levels not achieved in the average Israeli home, and use them for their much needed R & R, would make their homes available for long term rent to “young residents who otherwise cannot afford presently cost-prohibitive rents” according to Daniel K. Eisenbud’s article (“Finance Committee approves doubling property taxes…” Jerusalem Post, 10/12/13).  The concept is ridiculous.

Champion of this misguided cause appears to be Ofer Berkowitz, Jerusalem’s Deputy Mayor, from the “Jerusalem Awakening” party. He should rename his party “Jerusalem Dreaming in Technicolor.”

He said, “Expensive housing impairs the ability of young people to stay in Jerusalem.”  

How does a three million shekels, or more, property owned by a London or New York family prevent a young couple with a budget, including mortgage, of one and a half million shekels from getting into the local property market? Does Berkowitz really think that this property would sell to the young people he is trying to help at the price they can afford, even if he succeeds in forcing the overseas Jews to sell?  It’s absurd!

Luxury houses in the best parts of Herzlia Pituach can and do cost in excess of ten million dollars. While it is true that the owners of such properties will not be phased by increased taxation, it is unreasonable to expect or demand that owners who use them as vacation homes will rent them out long term to young Israeli families. Even if such owners decide to sell, can any right-minded politician imagine this will, in any way, help those grasping to get into the housing market?  

So why would they punish such owners to no effect? Could it be a cynical ploy to tax people who do not vote, and cast these foreign owners as the cause of the problem?

May I remind Mr. Berkowitz, and other mayors of towns with a proportion of vacation homes, that they charge excessive arnona taxes in locations where overseas owners have their vacation properties. As such, the overseas owners contribute far more than the average population in their towns and cities while being less of a cost burden on the municipal social welfare, educational, and other resources and services. 

It is not the investment of overseas property buyers in vacation homes that is at the heart of the domestic housing market defect. It is the failed policies of Israeli governments, and punishing our overseas friends and relatives is not going to correct their failure.

Governments have not succeeded in cutting the Gordian knot of bureaucratic mismanagement. They have not held good on their promise to release large swathes of state land for development of affordable housing. Neither have they developed a plan for the construction of rental properties. They have failed to order the construction of apartments pegged to a price that is within the financial reach of the population. Another government remedy would be to reduce the growing cost of consumer goods and food prices. In 2004, Israeli food prices were 10% below the OECD average. If the government would regulate food prices it would allow young people to have that extra money to get into the housing market.

Our politicians should not play a false narrative by pointing envious fingers of blame at our overseas friends and make them feel guilty for the poor state of Israelis property crisis.  Instead, they should address the shortcomings and solve the problem with the tools at their disposal that does not punish and drive away our wealthy friends from abroad.

Barry Shaw is the author of ‘Israel Reclaiming the Narrative.’ www.israelnarrative.com  

He is also the co-owner of Netanya Real Estate. www.netanyarealestate.com

It's time to create a Dutch Lawyers for Israel NGO.

It’s time to create the Dutch Lawyers for Israel NGO to defend Israel from the threats of boycotts, sanctions, and other discriminatory measures that are increasing in the Netherlands.

When I visited Amsterdam in August, I told my Dutch colleagues and Israel supporters, both in public and private, of the need for them to create an NGO along the lines of the UK Lawyers for Israel to work actively in the legal field in their country on behalf of Israel.

I told them of the necessity to create such an organization to counter the assaults of boycotts, sanctions, anti-Israel discrimination, and delegitimization that is growing in Holland. This threat is extending beyond the realms of radical left-wing groups into the commercial and political sectors of Dutch society.

Now a Dutch company, Vitens, the largest drinking-water supplier in the Netherlands, decided it is refusing to work with Mekorot, Israel’s national water corporation. What makes this decision discriminatory and strange is that, although Vitens refuses to work with Mekorot, both the Palestinian Authority and Jordan continue to do so.

Further, with the new cooperation agreement, signed in Washington between Israel, Jordan, the Palestinian Authority, and the World Bank, for new water exchanges and allocations and a massive project of regional cooperation to develop the Red Sea-Dead Sea water channel, of which Mekorot will be an important participating partner, the Viten’s decision is strange in its timing.  

It came just two months after it had signed a cooperative agreement with Mekorot. As Israeli Foreign Ministry spokesman, Yigal Palmor, said, “It is more than strange that this Dutch company should boycott an Israeli partner that works with the World Bank on a very important regional cooperation project. This only shows that by caving in to boycott pressures, one makes absurd decisions that result in a topsy-turvy situation.”

Viten’s states that it is in compliance with international law though there is no unequivocal international law ruling that prevent a company like Viten’s cooperating with Mekorot in work and development that will benefit all the inhabitants of Judea & Samaria, also known as the West Bank.

Viten’s decision follows another Dutch company, the Royal Haskoning DHV engineering firm, who recently cancelled its participation in constructing a sewage treatment plant across the Green Line that will benefit the Palestinian Arab population.

Dutch companies, it seems, are taking steps that hinder regional cooperation and negatively affects the best interests of the population in the disputed territories.

It is felt that Dutch companies take their position under the guidance of the Dutch government which has recently been discouraging companies from economic involvement beyond the Green Line, no matter who it harms.

It is now more urgent than ever that concerned legal professionals in Holland gather to create the Dutch Lawyers for Israel NGO to fight for common sense and justice. Lawyers, legal academics, and professors of international law should come together and create a body that will be both a think tank and an active organization to challenge the misconceptions and dangers of boycotts, sanctions, and other discriminatory measures that are increasingly being taken in the Netherlands against Israel.

Barry Shaw is the Special Consultant on Delegitimization Issues to the Strategic Dialogue Center of Netanya Academic College, Israel.