How Kidneys Are Bought And Sold on Black Market – Forward.com

How Kidneys Are Bought And Sold on Black Market – Forward.com

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CONDITIONS FOR PEACE SET OUT.

Israel's Peace Plan Marks a New Era in the Country's History

By Barry Rubin*

July 20, 2009

http://www.gloria-center.org/Gloria/2009/06/new-era.html

[This article in my opinion, sets out clearly what every Israeli and every supporter of Israel would understand to be the requirements for true peace to exist between Israelis and Palestinians.If the majority of Palestinian Moslems would belong to the middle-stream politically,- the pragmatists,- they would say yes,- let us get on with normalizing our lives in our own State. The Jews in Israel and Moslems in Palestine can then arrange their own and their future generations' lives in peaceful coexistence like intelligent peoples in the 21st century.
The fact that this majority of Palestinians does not exist as yet,- or perhaps it is not vocal enough as yet,- this is the main stumbling block to such an ideal end result to the conflict. When a period of cessation of hostilities will emanate and a Palestinian leadership will be elected with a respectful majority on a platform of peace with Israel with the recognition that it has every right to exist,- then and only then can one finally hope for, and trust in, a lasting peace.]
[MM]

Israel's Peace Plan Marks a New Era in the Country's History
By Barry Rubin*

This could be the most important article I write this year. Israel has entered a new era of thinking and policy in which old categories of left or right, hawk or dove are irrelevant under a national unity government bringing together the two main ruling parties.

How did this new paradigm arise?

Between 1948 and 1992, the Israeli consensus was that the PLO and most Arab states want to destroy Israel. When—or if--the day comes that they’re ready to negotiate seriously we’ll see what happens.

Then came the Oslo agreement and a huge shift. The governing view was that maybe the Palestinians and Arab states learned the cost of their intransigence enough to make peace possible. The left thought a deal could bring real peace; the right thought it was a trick leading to another stage of conflict on terms less favorable to Israel. But both expected a deal to materialize.

The year 2000, the Camp David failure, the Syrian and Palestinian rejection of generous offers, and Second Intifada destroyed illusions in Israel.

Since then, Israel has groped for a new paradigm. Prime Minister Ariel Sharon offered unilateralism; Prime Minister Ehud Olmert and Foreign Minister Tsipi Livni constantly offered more in exchange for nothing. But the more they did so, the more international abuse Israel received.

Now a new approach has finally emerged capable of reversing this situation. It goes like this: Israel wants peace but doesn’t hesitate to express not only what it wants and needs but also what’s required to create a stable and better situation. To ensure that violence and instability really ceases requires:

--Recognition of Israel as a Jewish state. Without this step, the aftermath of any “peace” agreement would be additional decades of Arab effort to destroy Israel in all but—temporarily—name.

--Absolute clarity that a peace agreement ends the conflict and all claims on Israel. Otherwise, the Palestinian leadership and much of the Arab world would regard any “peace” agreement as a license for a new stage of battle using Palestine as a base for renewed attacks and demands.

--Strong security arrangements and serious international guarantees for them. Have no doubt; these will be tested by cross-border attacks from Palestine.

--An unmilitarized Palestinian state (a better description than “demilitarized”), with the large security forces they already have: enough for internal security and legitimate defense but not aggression.

--Palestinian refugees resettled in Palestine. The demand for a “Right of Return” is just a rationale for wiping Israel off the map through internal subversion and civil war.

If Israel gets what it requires—and what successful peace requires—it will accept a two-state solution, a Palestinian Arab Muslim state (the Palestinian Authority’s own definition) alongside a Jewish state, living in peace.

Part of the new thinking is to understand that precise borders and east Jerusalem’s status, while important, are secondary to these basic issues. If those principles are resolved, all else can follow.

This new posture is not one of desperately asserting Israel’s yearning for peace but rather saying: We’re serious, we’re ready, we’re not suckers but we’re not unreasonable either. We want peace on real terms, not just more unilateral concessions and higher risk without reward. Not experimenting with our survival to please others. Not some illusory celebration of a two-state solution for a week and then watching it produce another century of violence.

Is it really such a brilliant idea to rush into giving a state without serious conditions to a Palestinian regime which has failed to govern competently what it already has, daily broadcasts incitement to murder Israelis, is profoundly corrupt, has already lost half its patrimony to a rival whose goal is a new genocide but whose own most fervent wish is to merge with that rival, and whose program is merely for the world to pressure Israel into handing it everything?

The best outcome would be if this program was met by Palestinian cooperation. If they are suffering so under alleged occupation, if so desperate for their own state, there’s nothing in this offer they can’t accept.

If, however, they prefer rejectionism, exposing their claims as false, that, too, is acceptable. The truth would be known: the Palestinians and much of the Arab world can’t make peace with Israel because they don’t want peace with Israel. And that is because they don’t want Israel to exist. Period.

Around this program, Jews outside Israel should rally, putting aside old conflicts about who’s more passionate about peace, who more concerned about security. The same applies to other countries and those well-intended who want to see a strategic situation more in accord with both their interests and humanitarian considerations.

In this context, there is no more puerile and misleading notion than that Israel’s government has put forth a program encompassing a two-state solution because of U.S. demands or pressures. This is a plan that organically grew out of the country’s situation, experience, and a broad national consensus.

A second notion Israel’s new paradigm rejects is the argument that either Israel is so strong that it can give without receiving or so weak that it must do so. The country simply does not desperately need a deeply flawed "solution" to be grabbed either out of misplaced "generosity" or "fear."

Another mistaken conception is that the status quo is intolerable and that any change would be for the better. More risks, concessions, and the establishment of an unstable and hostile Palestinian state--the most likely outcome at present--would make things worse.

Equally wrong is the notion that time is against Israel, a strong and vibrant society surrounded by weak, disorganized neighbors. Israel’s strategic situation has dramatically improved over the decades. It is a strong, confident society visibly meeting the challenge of the modern economic and technical environment.

Finally, and of the greatest importance, is the fact that Israel’s new policy is truly based on a consensus. It merges both the conservative approach--proper suspicions and demands for security and reciprocity—and the liberal approach--a proper readiness to compromise and desire for true peace--into one package.

Both elements are now blended in the thinking of the overwhelming majority of Israelis. A new national consensus has emerged which will be strong, and durable. If the world pays attention to it, there might actually be some real hope for peace.

But as long as Western governments and media are only interested in two things--what the Palestinians demand and new concessions from Israel--the situation will remain frozen for many years to come.




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*Barry Rubin is director of the Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center and editor of the Middle East Review of International Affairs (MERIA) Journal. His latest books are The Israel-Arab Reader (seventh edition), with Walter Laqueur (Viking-Penguin); the paperback edition of The Truth About Syria (Palgrave-Macmillan); A Chronological History of Terrorism, with Judy Colp Rubin, (Sharpe); and The Long War for Freedom: The Arab Struggle for Democracy in the Middle East (Wiley). To read and subscribe to MERIA, GLORIA articles, or to order books, go to http://www.gloria-center.org
The Global Research in International Affairs (GLORIA) Center

Interdisciplinary Center (IDC) Herzliya, P.O. Box 167, Herzliya, 46150, Israel

info@gloria-center.org- Phone: +972-9-960-2736 - Fax: +972-9-960-2736

© 2009 All rights reserved | Terms and

MOROCCO acknowledges the Holocaust vs. ME mindset.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/25/
AR2009072501360_pf.html

Morocco challenges Mideast Holocaust mind-set
By ALFRED de MONTESQUIOU

The Associated Press
Sunday, July 26, 2009 12:00 AM

RABAT, Morocco -- From the western edge of the Muslim world,
the King of Morocco has dared to tackle one of the most
inflammatory issues in the Middle East conflict - the Holocaust.

At a time when Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad's
dismissal of the Holocaust has made the biggest headlines,
King Mohammed VI has called the Nazi destruction of the
Jews "one of the most tragic
chapters of modern history," and has endorsed a
Paris-based program aimed at spreading the word
among fellow Muslims.

Many in the Islamic world still ignore or know little about
the Nazi attempt to annihilate the Jews during World War II.
Some disbelieve it outright. Others argue that it was a
European crime and imagine it to be the reason Israel exists
and the Palestinians are stateless.

The sentiment was starkly illustrated in March after a
Palestinian youth orchestra performed for Israeli
Holocaust survivors, only to be shut down by angry leaders
of the West Bank refugee camp where they live.

"The Holocaust happened, but we are facing a similar
massacre by the Jews themselves," a community
leader named Adnan Hindi said at the
time. "We lost our land and we were forced to flee."

Like other moderate Arab leaders, King Mohammed VI
must tread carefully. Islamic fervor is rising in his
kingdom, highlighted in 2003 by al-Qaida-inspired
attacks in Casablanca on targets that
included Jewish sites. Forty-five people died.

The king's acknowledgment of the Holocaust, in a speech
read out in his name at a ceremony in Paris in March,
appears to further illustrate the radically different
paths that countries like Morocco and Iran are taking.

Morocco has long been a quiet pioneer in Arab-Israeli
peace efforts, most notably when it served as a secret
meeting place for the Israeli
and Egyptian officials who set up President Anwar Sadat's
groundbreaking journey to Jerusalem in 1977.

Though Moroccan officials say the timing is coincidental,
the Holocaust speech came at around the same time that
Morocco severed diplomatic relations with Iran,
claiming it was infiltrating Shiite
Muslim troublemakers into this Sunni nation.

The speech was read out at a ceremony launching the "Aladdin
Project," an initiative of the Paris-based Foundation
for the Memory of the Shoah (Holocaust) which aims to
spread awareness of the genocide among Muslims.

It organizes conferences and has translated key Holocaust
writing such as Anne Frank's diary into Arabic and Farsi.
The name refers to Aladdin, the young man with the
genie in his lamp, whose legend,
originally Muslim, became a universally loved tale.

The Holocaust, the king's speech said, is "the universal
heritage of mankind."

It was "a very important political act," said Anne-Marie
Revcolevschi, director of the Shoah foundation.
"This is the first time an Arab head of state takes
such a clear stand on the Shoah," she said in a
telephone interview.

While the Israeli-Palestinian conflict often aggravates Arab
sentiment toward Israel, Morocco has a long history
of coexistence between Muslims and Jews.

The recent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip has further
inflamed resentment at Israel's treatment of the Palestinians. But
Ahmed Hasseni, a Casablanca cab driver, echoes a widely held view
that it shouldn't affect relations with Morocco's Jews.

"We're not dumb," he said. "We don't confuse the Israeli army with
the Jewish people," he said.

Jews have lived in Morocco for 2,000 years. Their numbers swelled
after they were expelled from Spain in 1492, and reached 300,000
before World War II, when yet more fled the German occupation and
found refuge in Morocco, then a French colony.

Today they number just 3,000, most having emigrated to France, North
America or Israel, but they are free to come back to explore their
roots, pray at their ancestors' graves and even settle here.

Simon Levy heads the Jewish Museum in Casablanca, a treasure trove of
old Torah scrolls, garments and jewelry illustrating the rich culture
of Moroccan Jewry.

"That I still run the only Jewish museum in the Arab world is
telling," he said.

Andre Azoulay, a top adviser to the current king, is Jewish and one
of six members of the king's council in a monarchy that oversees all
major decisions. Considered one of Morocco's most powerful men, he
views his country as "a unique case" for the intensity of its Jewish-
Muslim relations. "We don't mix up Judaism and the tragedy of the
Middle East," he told The Associated Press in an interview.

A founding member of the Aladdin project, Azoulay says part of the
program's goal is to show the West that Muslims aren't hostile to
Jews, and that Morocco was among countries that resisted Nazi plans
to exterminate their Jewish populations. He points to king Mohammed
V, the current ruler's grandfather, who is credited with resisting
French colonial anti-Semitic policies.

Such actions were rare, but not unique in North Africa during World
War II. In Tunisia, the late Khaled Abdelwahhab hid Jews from the
Nazis on his farm, and was the first Arab to be nominated as
"Righteous Among the Nations," a title bestowed by Yad Vashem,
Israel's Holocaust memorial, on those who risked their lives to save
Jews in the Holocaust. His case is still under study.

The Aladdin project is only just beginning. Its work has yet to reach
schools or bookstores in Morocco, although the Shoah foundation's
Revcolevschi said Anne Frank's diary is among Holocaust memoirs
available in Arabic and Farsi on the Internet, and is being sold
under the counter in Iran.

"People speak of a clash of civilizations, but it's more a clash of
ignorance," she said. "We're countering this."
Hakim El Ghissassi, an aide to the senior Islamic Affairs official
who delivered Mohammed's speech, said the king is uniquely positioned
to promote Islam's dialogue with Judaism, because his titles include
"Commander of the believers" - meaning he is the paramount authority
for Moroccan Muslims.
"What the king has said on the Holocaust reflects our broader
efforts," said El Ghissassi, listing such reforms as courses to
reinforce Morocco's tradition of tolerant Islam by familiarizing
local imams with Jewish and Christian holy books.
"We want to make sure everybody can differentiate between unfair
Israeli policies and respect for Judaism," he said.

Faith, Inter-faith and Politics: the limits and challenges.

Limits of interfaith
May. 12, 2009
, THE JERUSALEM POST
(This editorial appeared during the visit of Pope Benedict to Israel)

Perhaps we expect too much of priests, rabbis and imams. We want our clergy to be spiritual beacons, above the temporal fray; and to be politically savvy. Alas, on this earth there is no unscrambling politics and religion. And this inevitable mingling of the holy and the profane sometimes leaves us dismayed that those who claim a deeper understanding of the Creator's will should behave parochially.
(snip)
Still, man is a political animal and in his image did he create religion.
Since there is no separating politics from religion, the best we can strive for is that the spiritual in religion informs our politics more than the worst in our politics informs our religion.
Pray we have the wisdom to know the difference.
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The following letter was sent to the ABC in October 2008 when it was annonounce that the Religion Report was going to be axed.
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Dear Sir,

I first heard then read with alarm about your intended axing of Mark Crittenden's Religion Report on Radio National.

I am an avid listener to ABC Radio,- RN, 3LO and the News Station. The Religion Report is my regular RN program, as well as the Spirit of Things, Health Report and a few others.

I am not a religious person, but a secular individual belonging to a cultural and an ethnic faith community. This is what I think "Anglo-ethnic Australians" fail to understand in today's Australia. We are so much a whole of a multi-ethnic-multicultural-multi-faith society today, that the word "religion" per se is not the criterion by which many of us as individuals may identify,- but it is the way many of our ethnic communities may be recognised.

We may come from many lands, speak many languages, but there is a unifying bond also via our communities' faith systems, via schools, Churches, Synagogues, Mosques and Temples, plus social, cultural and traditional ties. Stephen Crttenden's program I think recognises this and therefore it is interesting for all of us to listen to.

For Australia and Australians to be unified under our secular democracy, we have to be able to understand each others' faith systems as well as each others' values, communal leadership systems and how everybody practices their religions in Australia. It is particularly important, as Christopher Pearson points out in today's 'Weekend Australian', "The war on terrorism is going to take a long time. .....Now is not the time for the ABC to be closing down its religion department or silencing that unit's most accomplished broadcaster."

I heartily endorse those sentiments. Perhaps the time has come to give it another title,- such as "Faith and Australian Society",- because the word "religion" seems to be associated with negative connotations. But we can't eliminate it from our vocabulary as long as there are so many institutions and individuals who cling to it.

Society should then give the program also a sense of responsibility for the faith practitioners to the State, rather than to any particular faith-system alone, which under the guise of religion becomes the ultimate arbiter of truth according to each one's interpretation of "God".

This is what the National broadcaster's responsibility should be,- bring us all closer together,- inform us and unify us!

There will always be room for audio-programming,- too many people may be visually impaired and computer-illiterate to take advantage of all the digital-visual programs available.

Respectfully yours,
MM
----------------------------------------------------

"Breaking the silence" vs. " Soldiers Speak Out" .

Allegations against the IDF by anonymous individuals and their rebuttal by others who are named and open.

A few weeks ago a fresh round of allegations of misconduct by the Israeli army during Operation Cast Lead were fired, again by (supposed) soldiers of the IDF. On a website called Breaking the Silence, almost thirty soldiers gave testimonies about actions during the war that would constitute as clear breaches of not only Israeli law but the international laws of war (see more). These accusations were made anonymously and their faces were blurred on film. As a response, another group has emerged called Soldiers Speak Out.

Their website states, “Today there is an attempt to defame the IDF through allegations that there were instances of misconduct during Israel’s Gaza operation. The accusations are based on unverified hearsay, and are proving to be false… Many IDF soldiers feel a deep sense of injustice at how some are misrepresenting them and the IDF. We want to tell you, the public, about our personal stories”.

What follows is a number of stories by soldiers who appear on film, completely revealing who they are and telling their stories. The site is supported by StandWithUs. In response to ‘Breaking the Silence’, StandWithUs Israel Director declared, “There is no silence to break. Israeli society is open, democratic and self critical. This one-sided and shoddy report fails to stress the context of the war as a battle against Hamas terrorists hiding behind civilians.” Meanwhile, Ran Goldstein, a spokesman for Breaking the Silence said that they encouraged soldiers to come forth with their testimony, whether it is for Breaking the Silence or for Soldiers Speak Out .

In keeping with the idea of a true democracy, I am sure we will continue to read more about this story in the weeks to come, as was the case with the last round of allegations back in March.
www.honestreporting.com

KOSHER IVF (in vitro fertilization).

HEALTH AND BIOETHICS ISSUES IN HALACHA.
Kosher IVF.

At the 2007 NCJWA Conference in Sydney, the panel at the Health Forum session included a local Rabbi in charge of supervising the process of in vitro fertilization (IVF) for Orthodox couples, so that the transfer of sperms from donor to recipient should not be accidentally contaminated IN THE TEST TUBES or mixed up!(Accidents have been recorded in the past all over the world!) Now it seems that there is an organization AND FERTILITY CENTER IN Jerusalem which helps Jewish couples with all their infertility needs.

Founded in 1995, Zir Chemed has helped thousands of Jewish couples resolve their infertility needs by reconciling the complex and sometimes competing demands of science , halacha (Jewish law) and human emotions. The medical staff of nine-- including physicians; research scientist; fertility psychologist and privately trained medical secretaries -- provides medical treatment and emotional counseling within a Jewish framework. Zir Chemed is renowned throughout Israel – and the world – for its high rate of success . Plans are in progress to build a long-awaited state of the art diagnostic center in Jerusalem to better serve the Zir Chemed clients. For more information visit: www.zirchemed.org

MELBOURNE FILM FESTIVAL:political interferences.

[Films can be controversial and various national interests can be annoyed if their perceived enemies' films are favoured at such a film festival. China therefore can protest, as it did about one film and the festival director can ignore it.Ken Loach is just a British (Londostan) individual and if he doesn"t care whether Australians see or not his films because of his prejudices for another country,i.e. Israel"s participation, he is entitled to remove it and it is his loss and not anyone else"s. Danby is right,- why should anyone bother with his films in the future? He is just another ignorant bigot full of his own self-importance and we can do without him and his films. Posted by MM]
ADDENDUM & CORRECTION. According to a commentator,(Sol Salbe), the comment attributed to Mr Danby below, that claims “Loach demanded the Melbourne film Festival withdraw Israeli films,” is apparently not correct. It seems that this is not what is claimed by Festival Director Richard Moore, or reported in the Australian Jewish News. MM.


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http://www.icjs-online.org/index.php?article=2002


Anti-Israeli Loach / Chinese / interference in film festival
by Michael Danby MHR
Monday July 20, 2009
(from a media release)

Michael Danby, the Federal Member for Melbourne Ports said it is a shame the British film maker Ken Loach has withdrawn from the Melbourne International Film Festival. Loach demanded the Melbourne film Festival withdraw Israeli films. [The British have never forgotten that they were targeted by Israelis in 1946 during the bombing of the King David Hotel in Jerusalem.ED note] Loach’s move follows an earlier move by the Chinese Consulate General demanding the festival not show a film about the Uighurs.

Danby said that Ken Loach’s behaviour towards Israeli films was reminiscent of the Stalinists portrayed in his film about George Orwell and the Spanish Civil War. Loach sympathetically portrayed the anti-fascist Poum militia, in which George Orwell served and which was destroyed when they were overtaken by the Stalinists.

‘It’s about time that some of these British cultural figures kept their own provincial cultural prejudices at home and stopped acting like colonial, cultural commissars,’ Danby said.

‘I, like thousands of film goers in Australia, will be very reticent to see Ken Loach films again, knowing that he is so prejudiced that he is opposed to Israel encouraging its own creative film industry. Israelis and Australians have always had a lot in common, including amused contempt for the irritating British penchant for claiming cultural superiority. Melbourne is a very different place to Londonistan,’ Danby said.

‘The age when boring British cultural figures, whether they be Tory or Trotskyite, can give orders to the colonial’s are long gone,’ Danby argued.

Mr Danby said he was not surprised that the Melbourne International Film Festival had ignored Loach’s demand to stop showing Israeli films.

‘Mr Loach should stay home in his grim, cold London garret. He and his prejudices are irrelevant to this part of the world,’ Mr Danby said.

Michael Danby has also opposed the Chinese government’s attempt to impose their beliefs in Australia. He said that Loach’s behaviour was similar to the Chinese Consulate General demanding the Melbourne International Film Festival stop screening film’s critical of the Chinese Government.

Danby concluded, ‘Like many Melbournians, I’ll be attending Israeli films like Waltzing with Bashir and the Uighur film, Ten Conditions of Love. We won’t be giving Mr Loach’s film further thought.’



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Lessons to be learned from Holocaust/Shoa

We are living in a post holocaust period. Yet the threats to the Jews living in the land of Israel are now coming from a fanatical and tyrannical Iran. Yet no one seems overly concerned. We Jews seem to be living in our wonderland, the political leaders can not seem to get together to make a stand against Ahmadinejad and the Iranian nuclear program. The Israeli parliament can't agree on any method of ending the increasing terror on its border and seems each day coming closer to giving the (Arabs) their own government with out seeing any concessions from them.
Are we falling into the trap that the Jews in Europe did some sixty-seventy years earlier?
Why do we not learn from history the horrors that crazy dictators like Ahmadinejad can bring?

http://www.jewishmag.com/135mag/warsaw_ghetto_uprising/warsaw_ghetto_uprising.htm

If we could say that there was a bright spot in the gloomy and somber history of the holocaust, perhaps we could point to the uprising in the Warsaw ghetto.
If in all the dark and disgusting annals of recent history, when Jews were led to murder like sheep let to slaughter, when Jews were tortured for fun, it was the revolt in the Warsaw ghetto.
This alone stands out as a monument to the Jewish ability to resist the Nazi onslaught. Yet I believe that it is precisely in the story of the uprising that the deeper cause of the holocaust can be seen.

The Warsaw Ghetto Uprising and the causes of the Holocaust
By N. Shuldig –

July 2009

Adolf Hitler was elected Chancellor of Germany in 1933. His plans were obvious from his speeches and his book, Mein Kampf, first published in, yet we find that the Jews did not seem to be particularly worried or anxious at that time. As Hitler became stronger and bolder and began instituting his laws against the Jews, and allowing atrocities to take place against the Jews, most German Jews felt that this would pass. After all, was not Germany an enlightened country; wasn't Germany one of the first countries to give Jews equal rights; didn't Jews serve in the German Parliament, the Bundestag, and distinguish themselves in the first World War? Jews enjoyed equal rights in Germany from the mid 1800's and participated fully in the nation's affairs.
Yet with all of this goodness bestowed upon them from the previous German governments, 1933 saw the beginning of the oppression of the Jews in Germany. Jewish stores and offices were officially boycotted; Jews were refused work and fired; Jewish children were not welcome in public schools. As the years progressed, the oppression increased. In 1938 Kristallnacht increased the persecution and began a series of wanton killing and confiscation of Jewish properties. It was not until 1941 that Auschwitz was chosen to be the first extermination camp.

(The rest of the article is on the link above)

ETERNAL VIGILANCE IS REQUIRED.
http://picasaweb.google.com.au/AUSSIEHEGMA/WALKFORHARMONY?feat=email#
You are invited to view photo album: WALK FOR HARMONY

RELIGIOUS POLICE IN GAZA

The difference between Gaza and the West Bank for the Palestinian Arab population is a difference between modernity in the latter and Islamic fundamentalism in the former. Democracy might have got Hamas elected to rule over the Gazans, but did the people really want an Iran or Saudi or Taliban-style government to rule them?
They may have wanted to rid themselves of corruption in Arafat's Fatah Movement and get more services for themselves. But a religious police? "The Free Gaza Movement" had better know what freedom they really want for the Palestinians. MM
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Report: Gaza Religious Police Now Official

by Maayana Miskin

A violent group calling itself “The Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice” has carried out attacks in Gaza since shortly after Hamas took over the area in mid-2007. Now a female Arab journalist reports that the “unaffiliated” group is clearly an official branch of Hamas, charged with enforcing the group's strict interpretation of Islamic law.

The journalist, Asma abu-Ghul, told Al-Arabiya that she was stopped by the committee's policemen at the beach. Ghul said she was detained for allegedly laughing too loudly and appearing in public with uncovered hair.

The “prevention of vice” police body reports directly to Hamas's Ministry of Waqf Affairs, Ghul said. The force is increasingly visible on the streets of Gaza, she reported, and its officers patrol public beaches and parks as well as businesses such as restaurants and coffee shops.

Hamas Denies Connection

Hamas officials admit that Hamas police patrol beaches and may tell women who they believe are dressed immodestly to go elsewhere. However, Hamas has not claimed any affiliation to the Committee for the Propagation of Virtue and Prevention of Vice, and has refused to even admit that the group exists.

The committee lists its goal as hunting down “slaves of the devil who commit blasphemy.” Its first public act, in late 2007, was to beat a local singer for giving a concert. Soon afterwards, members of the group carried out a vicious assault on two residents of southern Gaza accused of “disrespect for Allah.”

A similarly-named group exists in Saudi Arabia as an official government body. The Saudi Arabia organization is tasked with enforcing religious laws, such as ensuring that men and women who are not immediate family members do not interact and maintaining Islamic dress codes.

Police forces responsible for enforcing Islamic law exist in other Muslim states as well, among them Afghanistan and Iran.

Hamas Funds Koran Studies, Supports Covering Girls' Hair

Hamas recently announced that it would cut its employees' salaries by 1% in order to finance Koran studies in Gaza. Former Hamas terrorists and those imprisoned in Israel report that Koran study centers are often the place where young boys in Gaza are first recruited to Islamic terrorist groups.

Last year, the group officially adopted the traditional Muslim criminal code, which includes penalties such as lashes, amputation and crucifixion.

According to the Jerusalem Post, residents of Gaza believe Hamas plans to make hair covering mandatory for all girls in school in the near future. The requirement would affect girls as young as age five.