Reality as Opposed to the Narrative

“The designation decisions published by the National Bureau for Counter Terror Financing of Israel list extremely vague or irrelevant reasons, including entirely peaceful and legitimate activities such as provision of legal aid and 'promotion of steps against Israel in the international arena'."

UN Human Rights Office, Ramallah

 

"The Israeli government did not give us advance warning [that the Palestinian groups would be blacklisted'."

"We believe respect for human rights, fundamental freedoms and a strong civil society are critically important to responsible and responsive governance."

Ned Price, spokesman, U.S. State Department

 

"Those organizations [six named Palestinian NGOs] were active under the cover of civil society organizations, but in practice belong and constitute an arm of the [PFLP: Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine] leadership, the main activity of which is the liberation of Palestine and destruction of Israel."

"The security organizations will continue to act and intensify the strikes against terrorism and the terrorist infrastructure everywhere, and by all means."

"I call on the countries of the world and international organizations to assist in this fight and to avoid contact with companies and organizations that supply materials to terrorism."

Israeli Defense Minister Benny Gantz 

 

"Those funds [received from EU member states and the United Nations] served the Popular Front for payments to security prisoners’ families and martyrs, wages for activists, enlistment of activists, promotion of terror activity, promotion of the Popular Front activity in Jerusalem, and distribution of the organization’s messages and ideology."

Israel’s Ministry of Defense

 

"[The announcement by the Israeli government] confirms what our research has shown for years—this time six Palestinian NGOs were designated as terrorist organizations as part of the PFLP network."

"All are funded by European [governments] and deeply involved in political warfare against Israel."

NGO Monitor, watchdog group tracking anti-Israel nonprofits  

PFLP terrorists Abdul Razeq Farraj (l) and Ubai Aboudi (r) at Netherlands Representative Office in Ramallah, Feb. 2, 2017. (Facebook)

Now that's unexpected, is it not? Israeli intelligence sources identify the background commitment of  ostensible charitable and human rights organizations for the Palestinian cause, a cause dedicated to ultimately succeeding in demolishing the presence of the Jewish state to enable Palestinians to claim 'all clear' in their assumption of creating a Palestinian state "from the river to the sea". The culmination of their public relations campaigns capturing Western support claiming and finally attaining the sovereign status on the entire area occupied by Israel, that tiny sliver of land representing a mere portion of Judean geographic heritage.

 

On Friday, Israel's Defense Minister Benny Gantz captured immediate international attention -- mostly from the sources that so generously fund the Palestinian Authority's corrupt regime with its 'pay for slay' program, glorifying the exploits of deadly attacks against Jews by Palestinian 'martyrs' exemplifying commitment to 'resistance' against the 'occupier', on territory that the State of Israel through its military defence against Arab states' attack in 1967 gained. And where all other countries in the world once success in defence is achieved, gains are absorbed, where Israel is concerned this is unacceptable.

 

Palestinian victimization is a narrative beloved of Israel's critics, and they are legion. Israel's willingness in one successive government after another to come to a bargaining table to make concessions for peace made no inroads whatever in the Palestinian mind, incited by leaders who committed to aggravated assault against Jews in their midst, vowing never to live among Jews, while Palestinian Arabs who remained on their land with the re-creation of the State of Israel do live among Jews, as citizens of the country, unwilling to live under PA or Hamas rule in the West Bank or Gaza, but resentful regardless.

The European Union, the United Nations, the United States and Canada among others sanctimoniously fund the Palestinian 'refugees' living in the West Bank and Gaza, knowing full well, proof amply given, that there is no end to corruption, to incitement of violence against Israel; that celebration of the martyrs to the 'cause' will see their families given monthly financial awards, street and social center naming ceremonies. That school curricula, television programs and songs lionize 'martyrs' to inspire children to hate and to aspire toward vengeance.

 

Palestinian celebrate during a rally marking the 46th anniversary of the founding of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestinian (PFLP), in Gaza City, 7 December 2013. (Emad Nassar/Flash90)

 

Israel is called to account when it identifies and designates the funding connection between Palestinian charities and Palestinian terrorist groups. Any group can identify themselves as human rights organizations, groups whose specific aim is to demonize the real victims of Palestinian violence. Groups that excel in currying favour with western financial granting bodies who legitimize them, and continue portraying themselves as victims of violence while supporting those who mete out violence to Israel's civilian populations.

 

Defense Minister Benny Gantz announced on Friday that six named civil society groups have been designated terror organizations, on the basis of their having effectively operated as enablers for the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine terror group which most European and North American countries list as a terrorist group. A backlash took no time in response, with the European Union, the Palestinian Authority, progressive Democrats, US Jewish groups, and international human rights organizations expressing outraged criticism. 

"[The] declared organizations received large sums of money from European countries and international organizations, using a variety of forgery and deceit", stated the Israeli defence ministry, while pointing out the funding supported activities of the PFLP who even though declared a terrorist group in many western countries is still viewed sympathetically, while at the same time European funding agencies balk at being tangentially linked with funding their activities. To accept Israel's findings is to proclaim themselves guilty.

Pro-Palestinian protesters march outside the White House, Thursday, Aug. 25, 2021 in Washington. (AP/Amanda Andrade-Rhoades)

And while not denying ties to the six groups identified by Israel as funneling funds to the PFLP, Kayed Al Ghoul, an official with the group, said they maintain relations with civil society organizations across the West Bank and Gaza: "It is part of the rough battle Israel is launching against the Palestinian people and against civil society groups, in order to exhaust them", he maintained. And he should know; it is part of the violent battle the PFLP launches against Israel in hopes of exhausting its will to survive.

A Normal, Happy Family Oblivious to Their Fate

Four members of a Pakistani-Canadian family were killed by a man in a truck in what police are calling a hate-motivated attack. This photo, released by the family, shows the victims (left to right): Yumna Afzaal, 15, Madiha Salman, 44, Talat Afzaal, 74, and Salman Afzaal, 46.

"Let me be clear: This was an act of mass murder, perpetrated against Muslims — against Londoners — and rooted in unspeakable hatred." 

"The magnitude of such hatred can make one question who we are as a city, and who we are as Londoners."  

"It's up to us — all of us — to answer that question, through not only our words, but our actions. We can say 'this isn't who we are,' and I know that to be true."

"[Words] are not enough. We must demonstrate, behave, and act on those words. This act of unspeakable hatred, this act of Islamophobia, must be followed by acts of compassion, acts of kindness, acts of empathy, acts of solidarity — justice — and, above all else, love."

"In one act of murder some individual has wiped out three generations of family. It's horrific."  

London Mayor Ed Holder

 

"We believe the victims were targeted because of their Islamic faith." 

"We understand that this event may cause fear and anxiety in the community, particularly in the Muslim community, in any community targeted by hate ..."

"There is no tolerance in this community [for those] who are motivated by hate [to] target others with violence."

London Police Chief Stephen Williams  

Police officers look for evidence at the scene of mass murder targeting a Muslim family in London, Ontario on June 7, 2021. (Photo by AP)

Reports of a vehicle striking pedestrians in the northwest end of London, Ontario brought out emergency crews at 8:40 p.m. on Sunday. When they arrived police found a scene of chaos and horror. The result of a 20-year-old resident of the city who had deliberately mounted a sidewalk with his black pickup truck to strike a family of five as they waited to cross an intersection. People nearby heard screams of pain and anguish as an elderly woman, her son and daughter-in-law and her granddaughter suffered injuries from the impact that ended their lives. The fifth person involved in the unspeakable carnage was a 9-year-old boy who is now an orphan, his entire family murdered in one fell turn of a driving wheel.

Faez Afzaa is in hospital and it will take him some time to recover from his serious physical injuries. The psychic pain he will experience as he gradually is informed and realizes that his family is gone and he is alone in this world will haunt him forever. Syed Afzaal, his wife Madiha Salman, daughter Yumnah Afzaal, and Talat Afzaal, 74, failed to survive as an intact and close family involved in their community and their mosque, in a random mass killing meant to target, by all indications, Muslims. That these five people out together as a close family to enjoy a pleasant evening walk became victims of a psychopathic hater was their dire ill fortune.

No one can help feeling moved at the plight of the little boy destined to move through life without those who loved him, guided and nurtured him, and whom he loved unreservedly in return. No one could possibly 'understand' a vile depth of unreasoning hatred so ingrained that the holder of such sentiments could find it in him to plan to kill innocent people, people he didn't personally know, all of whom were vastly superior to the murderer in any and every conceivable metric of humanity.

Police were in consultation with the RCMP and public prosecutors on the potential of laying terrorism charges alongside those of murder. The man, who had sped away after deliberately targeting the family, was arrested nearby the scene of carnage in the parking lot of a mall. Nathaniel Veltman faces four counts of first-degree murder and one of attempted murder in a city reeling with the unfathomable fate that awaited innocent Londoners. At the time of his arrest, the killer was wearing a body-armour-type vest, a man with no prior criminal convictions.

On her balcony, reading, Lindsay Marshall, in an apartment facing the scene of the crash heard a truck :rev its engine "and I looked up right at that point", to see what she thought was a truck striking a mailbox or rigid road sign. "The truck didn't slow down, didn't stop, it just kept going", she recounted. Vehicles began to slow down, people to gather at the scene. Soon a police car arrived. Marshall spoke of watching as a police officer performed CPR on someone lying on the road.

"My jaw dropped as I held my hands over my mouth. Then a couple of metres away, there was another body, lying motionless, and then a third a few metres away from them, and then the little boy."

"It was like a horror movie. It was the worst thing I have ever seen. It's something that you never prepare yourself to witness in your lifetime."

Lena Gabriel, motorist driving toward the scene

"I can't get the sound of the screams out of my head", Paige Martin, a witness to the event said thinking about the victims runs through her mind non-stop. She had stopped at a red light when a large pickup drove past at speed, so close her car shook. "I was shaken up thinking it was an erratic driver", she said. She saw a police officer performing chest compressions on one person, with three others on the ground. 

"When I came to Canada, I came to London and bought a house and he [Syed Afzaal] was the first person I saw and came over with a jug of water and glasses. They were just out for their walk that they would go out for every day", said friend Zahid Khan of the family that had emigrated from Pakistan to Canada 14 years earlier. This was a family whose presence gave much to Canada and they had every expectation that Canada would reciprocate.

Father Syed Afzaal was a physiotherapist, his wife Madiha Salman was completing her doctorate in civil engineering at Western University, while their 15-year-old daughter Yumnah Afzaal was completing Grade 9; her grandmother considered to be a "pillar" of the family. Nine-year-old Faez, the sole survivor of the atrocity will be left with their memory to shadow his future.