The Real Shut Down of November 29th

United Nations General Assembly Resolution 181 on November 29, 1947. Public domain

November 29th was dedicated as a day of ‘shutdown4palestine.’[1]  It called on people to “Walk out from work and/or school, Picket Israeli embassies and consulates, Picket against companies that profit from Israel’s occupation of Palestine.” Included in the day’s events was a walk-out planned in the Teaneck school system intended to intimidate Jewish students and faculty, a flooding the Tree Lighting at Rockefeller Center and protest Columbus Circle, among many other actions of interrupting civil life in the New York area.

It seems most appropriate that these pro-Hamas protesters chose November 29th. It was on this day in 1947 that the UN voted for a partition plan in the face of the British attempt to relieve themselves of the Mandate in Resolution 181 (II). The resolution was passed with 33 votes in favor, 13 against, and 10 abstentions. The partition plan was readily accepted by the Jewish community but was rejected wholesale by the Arabs.^[2]  Instead the Arab nations declared war on Israel which led to the war of Independence in 1948.

It was not just in 1947 that the Arabs rejected for a peaceable solution of living side by side.

In 2000 Yasser Arafat rejected the offer of then Prime Minister Ehud Barak. [3] This proposal would have given the Palestinian Arabs 73% of the area of Judea and Samaria, and over the course of the next 10-25 years would have given the Palestinian Arabs 92% of the area. This was in addition to 100% of the land of Gaza. Arafat rejected the proposal.[4] Instead, he instigated the Intifada which claimed the lives of hundreds of Israeli civilians.

In 2005, Israel gave all of Gaza to the Palestinian Arabs who shortly thereafter elected Hamas, a known terrorist organization whose charter calls for the destruction of Israel and gives no credence to any peace negotiations.

In 2008, Abbas rejected the plan offered by then Prime Minister Ehud Olmert. The offer gave the Palestinian Arabs 93.7% of Judea and Samaria with additional Israeli land to make up for 5.8% along with a link to the Gaza strip. That proposal was rejected by Mahmoud Abbas.[5]

Unlike Jordan, Egypt, the UAE, Bahrain, Sudan, Morocco who were able to work together with Israel and create lasting peace, the Palestinian Arabs have chosen to reject every bid for peaceful coexistence and have instead chosen the path towards belligerence, blame and terrorism.

That is why it is quite a dramatic irony that November 29^th was chosen for the shut down for Palestine day.

The protests being arranged are absent in many things. They are absent of the American flag, absent of the American anthem, absent of American values, many times absent of civil obedience, and most notably absent from basic historical context or knowledge.

Let us call these protests what they are: not protests for peace but protests for demonizing Israel and Jews around the world.

[1] https://www.shutitdown4palestine.org/registeryouraction

[2] https://mfa.gov.il/Jubilee-years/Pages/1947-UN-General-Assembly-Resolution-181-The-international-community-says-Yes-to-the-establishment-of-the-State-of-Israel.aspx

[3] https://abcnews.go.com/International/story?id=82027&page=1

[4] https://www.theguardian.com/world/2002/may/23/israel3

[5] https://www.timesofisrael.com/abbas-admits-he-rejected-2008-peace-offer-from-olmert/