Blog

span style=”font-size: 11pt”>There’s the eviction case pursued by a settler organization against several Palestinian families living on property taken from Jewish families in 1948 in the East Jerusalem neighborhood of Sheikh Jarrah, near the tomb of Simon the Righteous, and later reclaimed through Israel’s legal system—which offers no parallel means for Palestinians to reclaim their own property in West Jerusalem from before 1948. The evictions are unjust and inflammatory, and Israel needs these properties like a hole in the head. But the case has been moving through the courts for years, and was about to be decided in the Supreme Court when the hearing was postponed at the last minute because the government—distracted by the political infighting that has paralyzed the country for the past two years, and by the possibility that Netanyahu is about to lose power—belatedly realized things were spinning out of control.

There’s the Palestinian election, the first in 15 years, which was recently called off by the Palestinians’ perpetual president, Mahmoud Abbas, when he understood that his Fatah party was probably going to lose to Hamas, just like it did the last time an election was actually held. Hamas is the key player here. Without an election to win, it needs a way to demonstrate that it, not Fatah, is the real leader of the Palestinians and the real threat to Israel. It must show that its ideology of perpetual religious war is the way forward not just here but across the Middle East, as opposed to the path of compromise and normalization that we’ve seen in parts of the Sunni Arab world over the past year. For Hamas, the brave new world of Israeli bridal parties in Abu Dhabi can potentially be undone by an ugly round of violence that galvanizes Muslim sentiment. All of those reasons lie behind the launch of hundreds of rockets into Israel since yesterday.

There’s Jerusalem Day, marked on Monday, which used to be a happy way of celebrating the reunification of this city under Israeli control in 1967, but which has become a festival important to the religious right and avoided by nearly everyone else. There’s the fact that many of my neighbors in this city, the Palestinian ones, have been in legal limbo for 54 years, residents but not citizens, caught in a conflict beyond their control. There’s the fact, never easy to swallow, that an important Muslim site, the Al-Aqsa Mosque, is under the security control of Jews. Hovering over all of this is the Muslim holy month of Ramadan, with more than a third of the city fasting in the heat, religious consciousness elevated and national fervor sharpened.

The forces of disintegration, the ones pushing us backward, are strong, and not confined to the limits of Jerusalem. When this latest round of violence began, a new Israeli government coalition appeared to be in the process of formation, one that would rely on the votes not just of an Arab party, but of the Islamic Movement. That would have been a remarkable step forward, one reflecting the welcome trends many of us see on the ground in Jerusalem, in Arab communities across Israel, and in countries like Morocco and the United Arab Emirates. Now the violence has frozen the coalition talks. For progress to happen and take root, the glue of daily life needs to hold. Right now, a lot of people are doing their best to make sure it won’t.

There's a long and undistinguished history of Muslim leaders playing on fears of threats to the Al-Aqsa Mosque to arouse the mob. There's an interesting article in the latest Fathom by Yisrael Medadon on The Roots of the ‘Al Aqsa is in Danger’ Myth: Alfred Mond and a Speech Distorted.

khartley.typepad.com/.a/6a00d83451ebab69e2026bded150ca200c-pi” style=”display: inline”>
Centrale lectrique, Italie power plant, Italy
[All photos © Jonk]

Jonk previously – Earth Ruins, Spomeniks.

absolutely petrified” by the idea that some members “do not think [trans people] are valid”, casually distorting the arguments of those of us who believe there’s a conflict between the demands of trans extremists and women’s rights. She was also quick to condemn Tony Blair when he sensibly suggested that the party should be wary of starting a “culture war”.

Rayner is far from being alone in the party. She is the most recognisable face in an influential lobby that includes the former shadow minister Lloyd Russell-Moyle, who had to apologise for a baseless attack on the author J K Rowling last year, and the shadow minister for tourism and heritage, Alex Sobel, who opposes single-sex spaces for women in hospitals, schools, refuges and prisons. “And that is why so many women no longer vote Labour – enjoy being in long-term opposition,” one woman told Sobel in an exchange on Twitter….

At the end of last week, the Labour MP and former frontbencher Khalid Mahmood homed in on identity politics as one of the causes of Labour’s poor showing, arguing that the party has been captured by “brigades of woke social media warriors”. But he’s a rare voice of sanity in a party that seems to have surrendered to a form of magical thinking. I wonder what Labour voters would make of the kinds of discussions that take place in local party meetings. In the midst of a pandemic and worsening economic crisis, members have been proposing motions declaring that “transwomen are women” and chastising anyone who objects to being described as “cis”.

Labour used to be described as a broad church, in which different factions more or less co-existed – not happily, to be sure, but dissent was permitted. Not any more. I know Labour councillors who are terrified to say openly that they are gender-critical, fearing the vitriol they will face. I’ve been told by party insiders that some MPs feel the same but they dare not speak out while the party is led by people who so vociferously support an extreme version of trans rights.

When Labour MP Rosie Duffield was the victim of a pile on by trans-activists last summer after liking a tweet suggesting that only women have a cervix, she might have expected sympathy from the most senior woman in the party; instead, Rayner told Duffield she should ‘reflect’ on her views about trans people.

It isn’t a Left-Right split within the party, it’s wholesale capture. The surrender to gender ideology began under Jeremy Corbyn, when transwomen were allowed to stand for positions as women’s officers and admitted to women-only shortlists. It has continued under Starmer, ensuring that women across the party now feel betrayed and angry.

Khalid Mahmood is interviewed at Spiked on why he resigned from Keir Starmer’s front bench.

Jo Bartosch has something to say about the case of the trans toddler that I mentioned yesterday:

Daytime television isn’t known for intellectual rigour, but it would have been fair to expect a little journalistic curiosity. Instead, head gently titled, Holly Willoughby oozed sympathy, stating with surprising confidence: ‘As a society we tend to want to put people into a girl or a boy box that just fits with what we know. It makes sense, it makes us feel comfortable, but that’s not reality.’

In saying this, not only did Willoughby demonstrate an alarming level of credulity — she also entirely missed the obvious point. Stormy could be a little girl living outside of the ‘girl’ box. She could have short hair, wear trousers and like firefighters, while still being female. Instead, Stormy’s parents have opted to put their female child in the box marked ‘boy’, because it seems it is still considered shameful to have a child who does not conform. There is nothing progressive about this. It is informed by what was once known as sexism.

It's remarkable how they get away with it: presenting themselves as the progressive smashers of the old gender stereotypes, as if feminists and gay activists haven't been banging on about precisely this for years. Clearly, as Bartosch says, what they're doing is the reverse of progressive. They're presenting a young girl who doesn't like being girly as in reality a boy wrongly assigned as female at birth – however that works – and now showing her real gender. Back in the sex stereotype box, in other words. When can we start her on the puberty blockers and the surgery?

Between 2009 and 2019, there was a 1,460 per cent increase in referrals of boys, and a staggering 5,337 per cent increase in referrals of girls to gender-identity services in the UK. Research suggests that a disproportionate number of those who identify as trans as children would otherwise grow up to be same-sex attracted. A 2017 study of 4,500 children showed lesbians are 12 to 19 times more likely to be tomboyish as girls than their straight counterparts, whereas gay men are likely to be 20 to 26 times more likely to be effeminate as boys. In Iran, where homosexuality is illegal, transgender surgeries are performed on lesbians and gay men to make them appear as ‘straight’. In affirming the nonsensical notion that some children are ‘born in the wrong body’, we are at risk of doing the same in the UK, albeit with a woke rainbow gloss.

play: inline”>

As ever, click to enlarge.

It's getting ridiculous. On This Morning yesterday we met the parents of a girl who declared that she was a boy when she was two. See it on Twitter – or you can watch the clip on YouTube:

Assigned female gender at birth, 4-year-old Stormy Stubbings first began showing signs of identifying as male at just 18-months-old. Stormy's father says his son 'hated pigtails and dresses' or even 'pretty shoes', and at the age of two-and-a-half told his family: 'I'm not a girl, I think I'm a boy'. However, the family have faced a struggle getting some adults to accept Stormy's decision – with many still insisting on calling him a girl. Stormy’s Mum and Dad, Matthew and Klara join us, in the hope that their story raises awareness so other families don’t suffer alone.

"Assigned female gender at birth", ffs! She was born a girl – nothing assigned about it. And "Stormy's decision"? The decision of a toddler? Deluded parents are nothing new, of course, but why are they being treated with such unctuous reverence here on mainstream TV by Holly Willoughby and Phillip Scofield?

Just insane.

n the West Bank, but the overall context is the same….

It’s worthwhile seeing this as a cyclical news cycle, both symbolic and used for larger agendas. It’s not clear if people will ever be evicted in Sheikh Jarrah or whether court cases are really what matters. Israel often wins court cases in these property disputes, meaning that the government or claimants are often legally correct, but that doesn’t mean that when it comes to policy that anything actually takes place. Often Israel backs down and doesn’t evict people.

Israel also seems incapable of foreseeing which of these issues will become a major cause every year and predicting accordingly. It also fails to find compromises that work, such as paying compensation and removing the issue of contention. 

In other words, it's complicated.

The situation is on a knife-edge. From today's Jerusalem Post:

It could go either way. Calm can return, or Israel will eventually find itself at war.

Though the past week has seen hundreds of Palestinians and Israeli police officers and civilians injured, the defense establishment still believes that the situation can return to normal. 

Normal as normal can be in this region.

Over 300 Palestinians and several Israelis were hurt in clashes with police on Monday alone, in violence that some say the city has not seen in years. Israel has been condemned for how it is dealing with the crisis in Jerusalem, but, the situation could have been much worse.

As of this article’s writing, while people have been wounded at the Temple Mount and stun grenades have been thrown inside al-Aqsa mosque, nobody has yet lost their life.

But were there to be fatalities at the holy site, especially if is a child or a youth, the entire country could explode….

Jerusalem is a tinderbox, on slow burn. It does not need to become an inferno.

So, clearly, calm responsible leadership is called for – from all sides.

Here's a senior Hamas figure, Fathi Hammad, doing his bit:

From the MEMRI summary:

Hamas Political Bureau Member and former Minister of the Interior Fathi Hammad urged the people of Jerusalem to “cut off the heads of the Jews.” His remarks were made in a public address, which aired on Al-Aqsa TV (Hamas-Gaza) on May 7, 2021. Hammad demonstrated how they should “cut their heads off” from the artery. He added that a knife only costs five shekels, saying: “with those five shekels, you will humiliate the Jewish state.” Hammad continued to say that Jews have spread corruption and acted with arrogance, and their day or reckoning and moment of destruction have come.

src=”http://mickhartley.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2021/05/mt_imported_image_1758335632-1.jpg” style=”width: 550px” title=”Dubai10″ />

[Photos © Xavier Portela]

ipants raised stormy cheers of "Hurrah!" as a token of their deep reverence for the General Secretary, who highly appreciated their simple performance, put forward the servicemen's families as the model of the times to be followed by the whole country and repeatedly showed warm loving care for them, which will be conveyed down through generations. 

Warmly waving back to the enthusiastically cheering participants, he highly appreciated once again their devoted efforts of successfully fulfilling their mission and duty as reliable assistants to their husbands holding arms and true servants for soldiers, while sharing the idea and intention with the Supreme Commander with their white gem-like loyalty and pure conscience. 

All the members of the art groups of servicemen's families hardened their pledge to make positive contributions to strengthening military capability and developing socialist civilization, while glorifying every moment of their lives as eternal cooks of the revolution boundlessly loyal to the respected General Secretary, true daughters of the Party and reliable eldest daughters-in-law, cherishing today's glory and happiness. 

sed the children on the difference between bisexuality, omnisexuality and pansexuality.

One parent with two daughters at the school said: “My fear is that girls will follow these links. I cannot understand why a newsletter would be produced for girls in a school with such information, especially those as young as 11.”

After clicking on one of the links, she was shocked to see information about the potential side-effects of breast binding.

“I cannot understand why a school would tell girls that you can bind your breasts so tightly that it harms your breasts and then if it hurts that they can chop their breasts off.

“Why are they telling my children this?”

Parents complained to a pressure group, the Safe Schools Alliance, which has referred the school to the Department for Education to investigate.

Tanya Carter, from the alliance, said it was “very alarmed” by the newsletter and that it was “disturbing” that it appeared to have been sent to all pupils, but not parents.

She added: “We are receiving ever-increasing [numbers of] emails from parents about similar issues in schools.

“We are trying to support parents through the established frameworks to challenge schools, but many parents are scared of retribution for themselves or their children and will not do so.”…

In a statement, the school said the newsletter, written by the LGBTQ+ student society, aims to “inform and promote understanding of LGBTQ+ issues”.

Such as, that young girls concerned about their developing bodies should seriously consider breast-binding, perhaps followed by a mastectomy. Perfect.

A comment:

My daughter goes to this school. I had no idea about this breast binding article. Thank you for bringing it to our attention. I complained to the school last year when the student newsletter recommended that students contact Mermaids for information. The teacher, who responded said that she'd checked with the borough's safeguarding lead and they said Mermaids was ok, because Stonewall and the NHS endorsed them (ha ha). I pointed her in the direction of law suits against the Tavistick clinic.

Stonewall and Mermaids. Well, there you go. Mermaids have already been exposed, pushing the grotesque medical fad of paediatric transition. The exposure of Stonewall, let's hope, is following close behind.