Posted on 02/14/2003 1:03:52 PM PST by yonif
B'nai B'rith has issued a new report sharply criticizing YMCA/YWCA for its array of pro-Palestinian activities, including a recent campaign undertaken by the group called "Free Palestine".
The report notes that as part of the campaign, which is being spearheaded by the YWCA of "Palestine" and the eastern Jerusalem YMCA, a brochure was issued that compares the treatment of the Palestinians by Israel to the crucifixion of Jesus by the Romans.
The brochure states, "Jesus was crucified with the people who were branded as 'terrorists' by the authorities of this time. The Palestinians are currently crucified, humiliated, and denied their human rights and dignity."
Furthermore, the document calls for "the total withdrawal of the Israeli presence from the areas occupied in 1967 and the establishment of an independent, sovereign and viable Palestinian State with East Jerusalem as its capital."
The B'nai B'rith report, authored by Alan Schneider, Director of the group's World Center in Jerusalem, also notes that despite the fact that "a hallmark of YMCA/YWCA activities has been its non-partisanship", the World Alliance of YMCAs has passed numerous anti-Israel resolutions in recent years, including one that called for the right of return for Palestinian refugees to pre-1967 Israel.
"Distortions and falsehoods abound" in the YMCA resolutions, according to Schneider, and they are "replete with biased terminology like 'Israeli Occupation Forces, 'Liberated Palestinian Territories' and 'Palestine '
In April 2001, the YMCA appointed an International Observer to investigate the situation in the Middle East and prepare reports on behalf of the group's World Council.
Of the 20 reports prepared, Schneider says, "none deal with the suffering inflicted by Palestinian terrorists on Israeli civilians. All the reports deal only with Palestinian hardship and blame is assigned solely to Israel.
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