By David Singer ——Bio and Archives--September 21, 2021
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TIME has made a laughing stock of itself - and its credibility - by including 23 year old rabid-Jew hating Palestinian Arab journalist Mohammed El-Kurd and his twin sister Mana El-Kurd among 16 persons listed as Icons in its 100 most influential people in 2021.
Other Icons include the Duke and Duchess of Sussex – Prince Harry and Meghan Markle, tennis player Naomi Osaka and entertainers Britney Spears and Dolly Parton.
Edward Felsenthal Editor-in-Chief and CEO of TIME – said of the magazine's choices:"At TIME, we see the TIME100 as far more than a list. It is a community of leaders whose energy and commitment we hope inspires others to spring into action as well."El-Kurd's Jew-hating credentials were exposed in a May 2021 interview when making the following false claims:
Just four Arab families residing in El- Kurd's neighbourhood of East Jerusalem – Sheikh Jarrah - are facing the risk of eviction due to a legal challenge by Jews claiming ownership of these four properties. These Arab families have refused an offer that they remain in their properties as "protected tenants", recognise ownership of their homes by their Jewish claimants and pay a symbolic annual rent. Jordan occupied Sheikh Jarrah and East Jerusalem in 1948 and expelled every Jew living there. Jews were unable to return there until after the Six Day War in 1967 and subsequently begin the long legal process to reclaim their properties given to these four families by Jordan in conjunction with UNRWA. The 1967 Israeli census showed 29904 Palestinian Arabs were then living in East Jerusalem. Today that population numbers 428304 according to World Population Review. El-Kurd's accusation of ethnic cleansing is offensive, inflammatory and one big lie.
- "My entire neighbourhood is being stolen by Israeli settler organisations working with the Israeli government to ethnically cleanse us from Jerusalem, as they have been doing for 73 years"
TIME should be truly ashamed of its decision to recognise this Jew-hater and purveyor of false claims seeking to denigrate and incite violence against Jews. Author's note: The cartoon — commissioned exclusively for this article — is by Yaakov Kirschen aka "Dry Bones"- one of Israel's foremost political and social commentators — whose cartoons have graced the columns of Israeli and international media publications for decades.The claim of Israeli settler-colonialism denies that Israel is the national home of the Jewish people reconstituted after 3000 years with the approval of the League of Nations and the United Nations, that Jews are not colonisers but have been granted international recognition to resettle in, rebuild and restore their ancient and biblical homeland. El-Kurd's attack on Israel's judicial system in a throwaway unsubstantiated sentence is reckless, provocative and amounts to a call on Palestinian Arabs to disrespect the law and to engage in violence against Jews – as they did in Jerusalem in 1920, 1929 and 1936.
- [Sheikh Jarrah] is a microcosm of Israeli settler-colonialism in Palestine at large…it showcases, you know, the way they [Israel] forcibly take people's homes and have taken people's homes. But it also showcases a manipulation, or exploitation, of the law, that is basically about colonial supremacy, to produce a judicial system that legalises ethnic cleansing.
The dominant narrative El-Kurd seeks to rebut includes the Palestinian Arabs refusal to accept:
- "The fact that there's a dominant narrative that stretches so far from the truth is so concerning. And the fact that the rebuttal to that narrative is seen as radical or extremist or courageous, is going to put me in danger is really concerning"
El-Kurd's denial of these truths signals continuing confrontation – not negotiations - to resolve the Jewish-Arab conflict.
- Partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs proposed by the Peel Commission in 1937 and the United Nations in 1947,
- offers made by Israel in 2000 and 2008 and
- proposals made by President Bush in 2003 and President Trump in 2020
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David Singer is an Australian Lawyer, a Foundation Member of the International Analyst Network and Convenor of Jordan is Palestine International—an organization calling for sovereignty of the West Bank and Gaza to be allocated between Israel and Jordan as the two successor States to the Mandate for Palestine. Previous articles written by him can be found at: jordanispalestine.blogspot.com