Jew-hater joins Prince Harry & Meghan as Icons in TIME Top 100
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:
- “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”
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 29,904 Palestinian Arabs were then living in East Jerusalem. Today that population numbers 428,304 according to World Population Review. El-Kurd’s accusation of ethnic cleansing is offensive, inflammatory and one big lie.
- [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 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.
- “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”
The dominant narrative El-Kurd seeks to rebut includes the Palestinian Arabs refusal to accept:
- Partition of Palestine between Jews and Arabs proposed by the Peel Commission in 1937 and the United Nationsin 1947,
- offers made by Israel in 2000 and 2008 and
- proposals made by President Bush in 2003 and President Trump in 2020
El-Kurd’s denial of these truths signals continuing confrontation – not negotiations – to resolve the Jewish-Arab conflict.
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.
David Singer is a Sydney lawyer and a foundation member of the International Analysts Network
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.
Why bring the Royals into it?
To highlight how obscene it was for TIME to include a Jew-hater as an Icon in a list that included the Royals.
Disagree equating anti Israeli actions with anti Semitism. Please have more objective reporters
An oft-repeated response that has no merit.
Israel is the Jewish National Home that is populated by almost 7 million Jews – comprising 80% of the population.
“Israeli-settler colonialism in Palestine at large”, “colonial supremacy” and “ethnic cleansing” falsely alleged by El-Kurd is an incitement to violence against the Jewish population and their forebears. It constitutes a particularly virulent example of Jew-hatred. Trying to pretend that it doesn’t says a lot about you.
one can be an influential person even if your crap is wrong .by identifying the person ,one can counter the message
Giving any form of recognition to a rabid lying Jew-hater as TIME has done – is obscene and unacceptable.