Peace Partnership -- Ending the war by vilifying IDF soldiers. Good for fund raising at least.

Saturday, August 24, an organization called The Peace Partnership ran a convention in the Arab city of Taibeh. The event was well covered in the Arabic press, aroused some controversy in the Hebrew press but was essentially ignored by the English-language press. Since the organization promises future events of this kind, it may be important to take a glimpse at what happened. The convention took place in a Mifal Hapayis building donated to the city for cultural and sports activities; the use of Mifal Hapayis premises for political purposes is strictly prohibited. The meeting was entitled, ‘Testimonies from War,’ and it was political. The Peace Partnership, in fact, defines itself as a political organization. Mifal Hapayis responds to the meeting in Taibeh There was a precedent. In 2017, after having learned that their building had been used for a meeting in Umm el-Fahm in support of Sheikh Raed Salah (imprisoned multiple times for incitement of violence and support of terrorism), Hapayis stopped funding other projects in the city until they could take up the matter with the mayor. Hapayis said they would ensure that all municipalities and regional councils around the country understand the no-political-events rule. It seems this clarification passed Taibeh by. Mifal Hapayis is awaiting a response to the letter they sent Taibeh’s mayor in which the following are the most salient points (my translation):

5. In accordance with section 9.5 of the commitment letter you signed before Mifal Hapayis, the local authority will not rent the project nor hand it over and will not permit the use and/or holding of it or any part of it, to any commercial, business, political or private entity. [emphasis in original]
6. To the extent that the local authority violates or fails to fulfill any obligation that it undertook in the commitment letter, Hapayis will be entitled to apply sanctions such as freezing grants awarded to the authority and a demand to return the grant money.

The City of Taibeh In a WhatsApp conversation, Deputy Mayor Abed Hakeem Jbara said that the municipality supported the meeting and the citizens of Taibeh support ending the war and are in favour of peace. He emphasized that if there was anything at the event other than calls for an end to war, he would not have attended. His description is curious given what we soon learned about the conference. A senior member of the administration who wishes to remain anonymous denied that the event was connected with the municipality saying that not all members of the city council coalition were in favour of it. In fact, the mayor, who was scheduled to give the opening remarks backed out before the meeting, and I was not told why. When trying to get an answer to the question why he, himself, was against the event, he remarked that it was not an Arab event but a conjoint Jewish-Arab conference and had it been held in a Jewish town, there would not have been any fuss about it. Given the nature of the event, there is no doubt it would have created a fuss regardless of where it was held. Nature of the Conference The title of the conference was “Testimonies from war,” not “End the war.” It was organized by a coalition of organizations that can be said to be anti-Zionist to extremely anti-Zionist. Some of the speakers were: Dr. Lina Kasem, CEO of Physicians for Human Rights. PHR uploaded a Facebook post on Oct 8^th justifying the Hamas atrocities against Israelis and referred to the terrorists as Hamas forces. Guy Ben Yehuda, Breaking the Silence, an organization dedicated to defaming the IDF with unsubstantiated accusations against soldiers. Attn. Sari Horiyyah, member of the Hadash party. He was arrested for expressing support for Hamas after Oct 7^th. Oren Ziv, writer at the anti-Israeli magazine, +972. Yonatan Zeigan (Silver), member of Bereaved Families Forum and Vivian Silver’s son; Vivian Silver was active in promoting peaceful relations with Palestinians until she was murdered by them in her home on Oct 7^th. The event was moderated by Omaima Abu-Rass of the Democratic Women’s Movement. She was one of the first women to join Taayush, an organization that has referred to the IDF as Judeo-Nazis and that was exposed on Israeli TV discussing handing over to the Palestinian Authority a Palestinian who sold land to a Jew, an offence punishable by torture and death. After the conference, MK Aida Touma-Soleiman wrote an “X” post expressing satisfaction that the event exposed horrific testimonies of IDF soldier crimes in Gaza, but also in the West Bank and even within Israel. She promises that these testimonies will be heard around the globe. Partners in Peace summed up the event saying that if Israel is not pursuing justice for IDF war crimes, then they will have to collect the testimonies and evidence. Other than the seemingly requisite statement that what happened on Oct 7^th was a historic tragedy, there seemed to have been no criticism of Hamas. The problem with this event is not just Mifal Hapayis’ problem, that is, that a building they donated to the city was used for political purposes strictly prohibited in their agreement with the city. It is a general problem for the nation when any stage is given to those who demonize the IDF and the soldiers who are at this very moment risking their lives to protect all of us, including protecting those who spoke at the event and those who sat in the audience devouring every venomous word. Shai Glick, CEO of the human rights organization B’tsalmo, brought the event to the attention of Mifal Hapayis and thanks them for making their position clear to the mayor of Taibeh. He promises to pursue the matter and ensure that wherever there is incitement against the State of Israel and the IDF, there will be clear sanctions and punishment. As for me? I plan to be at their next meeting so I can give you a live report from the field like real reporters are supposed to do.