Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 12, 2015

Decoding Anti-Gentilism and Loxism of the Leo Frank Case

Upon the centennial of Mary Phagans rape, strangulation and mutilation long ago on April 26, 1913, two pioneering spirits: Carolyn Yeager and Hadding Scott, debunk some of the major themes of anti-Gentile racism and racist Jewish hatecrime hoaxes concerning the Leo Frank case, that were manufactured by the well organized Jewish community beginning in 1913 and continue to this very day.

Since 1913, through every kind of outreach and sensory medium available to the mainstream media (articles, books, movies, music, theater, drama etc..), Jews have been using the Leo Frank case to wage a vicious guilt and shaming culturewar against White Americans via Jewish multifront genetic racewars against Western Civilization. However, the good news is that this monumental and disingenuous Jewish fraud, spanning more than 100 years, has finally been deconstructed, thanks to numerous researchers who have worked tirelessly over the past few years to bring the frank truth to everyone about what really happened in 1913. Five years ago if you did research on the Internet about Leo Frank the only sources that would come up allege anti-Gentile conspiracies of Jewish race prejudice and unfair trials, now there is finally some balance for people to read both sides of the case.

The next 100 years must and will be devoted to educating the human race about the innate nature of the Jewish pathological tendencies to compulsively lie and falsify history. By giving students and educators access to the primary sources of the Leo Frank Case, all of humanity can fact check the claims of Jewish falsification of their history and ours. Students will learn about how the collective Jewish genetic algorithm produces high-intelligent, high-functioning, pathological liars and paranoiacs with obsessive-compulsive fragile egos requiring history to be falsified to stroke their infantile racial-narcissism and perpetuate their disingenuous noble victimhood.

If you enjoyed this one hour radio program about the murder of Mary Phagan and ensuing Leo Frank case please visit Carolyn Yeagers website: http://www.CarolynYeager.Net

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Posted By admin on May 12, 2015

The Leo Frank case is one of the most notorious and highly publicized cases in the legal annals of Georgia. A Jewish man in Atlanta was placed on trial and convicted of raping and murdering a thirteen-year-old girl who worked for the National Pencil Company, which he managed. Before the lynching of Frank two years later, the case became known throughout the nation. The degree of anti-Semitism involved in Frank's conviction and subsequent lynching is difficult to assess, but it was enough of a factor to have inspired Jews, and others, throughout the country to protest the conviction of an innocent man. The Murder

OnApril 26, 1913, Mary Phagan, the child of tenant farmers who had moved to Atlanta for financial gain, went to the pencil factory to pick up her $1.20 pay for the twelve hours she had worked that week. Leo Frank, the superintendent of the factory, paid her. He was the last person to acknowledge having seen Phagan alive. In the middle of the night the factory watchman found her bruised and bloodied body in the cellar and called the police. The city was aghast when it heard the news. A young factory girl had been brutally murdered; rumors spread that she had been sexually assaulted before her death. The public demanded quick action and swift justice.

On the basis of this evidence Frank was arrested. The police thereafter collected more "evidence" before deciding to put Frank on trial. The state's main witness, Jim Conley, a black janitor who was arrested when he was seen washing red stains from a shirt, later gave at least four contradictory affidavits explaining how he had helped Frank dispose of the body.

Atlantans hoped for a conviction. They surrounded the courthouse, cheered the prosecutor as he entered and exited the building each day, and celebrated wildly when the jurors, after twenty-five days of trial, found Frank guilty.

Within weeks of the trial's outcome in early September, friends of Frank sought assistance from northern Jews, including constitutional lawyer Louis Marshall of the American Jewish Committee. Marshall gave advice about what information to include in the appeal, but Frank's Georgia attorneys ignored his counsel. Frank's lawyers filed three successive appeals to the Georgia Supreme Court and two more to the U.S. Supreme Court, all on such procedural issues as Frank's absence when the verdict was rendered and the excessive amount of public influence placed on the jury. Ultimately the U.S. Supreme Court, still on procedural grounds, overturned Frank's appeals; however, a minority of two, Oliver Wendell Holmes and Charles Evans Hughes, dissented. They noted that the trial was conducted in an atmosphere of public hostility: "Mob law does not become due process of law by securing the assent of a terrorized jury."

Slaton reviewed more than 10,000 pages of documents, visited the pencil factory where the murder had taken place, and finally decided that Frank was innocent. He commuted the sentence, however, to life imprisonment, assuming that Frank's innocence would eventually be fully established and he would be set free.

Slaton's decision enraged much of the Georgia populace, leading to riots throughout Atlanta, as well as a march to the governor's mansion by some of his more virulent opponents. The governor declared martial law and called out the National Guard. When Slaton's term as governor ended a few days later, police escorted him to the railroad station, where he and his wife boarded a train and left the state, not to return for a decade.

The Frank case not only was a miscarriage of justice but also symbolized many of the South's fears at that time. Workers resented being exploited by northern factory owners who had come south to reorganize a declining agrarian economy. Frank's Jewish identity compounded southern resentment toward him, as latent anti-Semitic sentiments, inflamed by Tom Watson, became more pronounced. Editorials and commentaries in newspapers all over the United States supporting a new trial for Frank and/or claiming his innocence reinforced the beliefs of many outraged Georgians, who saw in them the attempt of Jews to use their money and influence to undermine justice.

In 1986 the Georgia State Board of Pardons and Paroles pardoned Frank, stating:

Without attempting to address the question of guilt or innocence, and in recognition of the State's failure to protect the person of Leo M. Frank and thereby preserve his opportunity for continued legal appeal of his conviction, and in recognition of the State's failure to bring his killers to justice, and as an effort to heal old wounds, the State Board of Pardons and Paroles, in compliance with its Constitutional and statutory authority, hereby grants to Leo M. Frank a Pardon.

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Posted By admin on May 12, 2015

The success of the Broadway musical Parade has rekindled interest in the Leo Frank case. In 1913, Frank was convicted of murdering Mary Phagan, a 13 year old employee of the Atlanta pencil factory that Frank managed. After his death sentence was commuted by Georgia's governor, a mob stormed the prison where Frank was being held and lynched him. Frank became the only known Jew lynched in American history. The case still spurs debate and controversy along with Broadway success. What are the facts of the Frank case?

Little Mary Phagan, as she became known, left home on the morning of April 26 to pick up her wages at the pencil factory and view the Confederate Day Parade. She never returned home. The next day, the factory night watchman found her sawdust-covered body in the factory basement. When Frank, who had just completed a term as president of the Atlanta chapter of B'nai B'rith, was asked to view the body, he became agitated, confirmed personally paying Mary tier wages, but could not say where she went next. Frank, the last to see Mary alive, became the prime suspect.

Georgia's solicitor general, Hugh Dorsey, sought a grand jury indictment against Frank. Rumor circulated that Mary had been sexually assaulted. Factory employees offered apparently false testimony that Frank had made sexual advances toward them. The madam of a house of ill repute claimed that Frank had phoned her several times, seeking a room for himself and a young girl. At a time when the cult of Southern chivalry made it a hanging crime for African-American males to have sexual contact with the flower of white womanhood, these accusations against Frank, a Northern-born, college-educated Jew, proved equally inflammatory.

For the grand jury, Hugh Dorsey painted Leo Frank as a sexual pervert who both was homosexual and preyed on young girls. What he did not tell the grand jury was that a janitor at the factory, Jim Conley, had been arrested two days after Frank when he was seen washing blood off his shirt. Conley then admitted writing two notes found by Mary Phagan's body. The police assumed that, as author of these notes, Conley was the murderer; but Conley claimed, after apparent coaching from Dorsey, that Leo Frank had confessed murdering Mary in the lathe room and paid Conley to pen the notes and help him move Mary's body to the basement.

Even after Frank's housekeeper placed him at home, having lunch, at the time of the murder and despite gross inconsistencies in Conley's story, both the grand and trial jury chose to believe Conley This was a rare instance of a Southern black man's testimony being used to convict a white man. In August of 1913, the jury found Frank guilty in less than four hours while crowds outside the courthouse shouted, Hang the Jew. Historian Leonard Dinnerstein reports that one juror had been overheard to say before his selection for the jury, I am glad they indicted the G-d damn Jew. They ought to take him out and lynch him. And if I get on that jury, I'll hang that Jew for sure.

Facing intimidation and mob rule, the judge sentenced Frank to death. He did not allow Frank in the court room on the grounds that, had he been acquitted, Frank might have been lynched by the crowd outside.

Despite these breaches of due process, Georgia's higher courts rejected Frank's appeals, and the U. S. Supreme Court voted, 7-2, against reopening the case, with justices Holmes and Hughes dissenting. Frank's survival depended on Georgia governor Frank Slaton. After a 12-day review of the evidence and letters recommending commutation from the trial judge (who must have had second thoughts) and from a private investigator who had worked for Hugh Dorsey, Slaton commuted Frank's sentence to life imprisonment. That night, state police kept a protesting crowd of 5,000 from the governor's mansion. Wary Jewish families fled Atlanta. Slaton held firm. Two thousand years ago, he wrote a few days later, another Governor washed his hands and turned over a Jew to a mob. For two thousand years that governor's name has been accursed. If today another Jew [Leo Frank] were lying in his grave because I had failed to do my duty, I would all through life find his blood on my hands and would consider myself an assassin through cowardice. A year later Dorsey soundly defeated Slaton's bid for reelection.

Soon after the commutation, on August 17, 1915, a group of 25 men, described by peers as sober, intelligent, of established good name and character stormed the prison hospital where Leo Frank was recovering from having his throat slashed by a fellow inmate. They kidnaped Frank, drove him more than 100 miles to Mary Phagan's hometown of Marietta, Georgia, and hanged him from a tree. Frank conducted himself with dignity, calmly proclaiming his innocence. Townsfolk were proudly photographed beneath Frank's swinging corpse, pictures still valued today by their descendants.

Some two weeks after the lynching, Rabbi Stephen Wise wrote to Henry Morgenthau, Sr., noting that the situation is becoming very hard for the Jews in the little towns, many of whom are being boycotted.

Southern Jewish historians note that Atlanta Jewry has still not fully recovered from the trauma of the Leo Frank case, and that the Temple bombing of the early 1960s simply reopened those wounds. Another legacy of the case is that, to help defend Frank, B'nai B'rith created its (now-independent) Anti-Defamation League. In 1986, the Georgia Board of Pardons and Paroles finally granted Leo Frank a posthumous pardon, not on the grounds that they thought him innocent, but because his lynching deprived him of his right to further appeal. The descendants of Mary Phagan's family and their supporters still insist on his guilt.

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The People v. Leo Frank premieres Monday, November 2, 2009. Check Local Listings to see when it is airing on your local PBS station.

In the pre-dawn hours of April 27, 1913, the night watchman at an Atlanta pencil factory made a grisly discovery: the body of a young girl. She had been beaten, strangled, and possibly raped. The death of 13-year-old Mary Phagan, a white worker at the factory, quickly became front-page news. Several arrests were made, including Jim Conley, a black janitor at the factory. Also arrested was Leo Frank, the factory's superintendent and the last person to admit seeing Mary alive.

Suspicion of Frank soon mounted, based largely on his nervous behavior. A Jew who was raised in Brooklyn, Frank quickly became prosecutor Hugh Dorsey's prime suspect. In the last of four statements the police 'sweated' out of Jim Conley, he confessed to having helped Leo Frank hide Mary's body but, the janitor insisted, Frank alone was the killer. 'POLICE HAVE THE STRANGLER,' blared one headline, effectively convicting Leo before he ever faced a jury.

Frank's trial lasted a month. Each day spectators packed the sweltering courtroom, with hundreds more waiting outside to catch the latest news. The proceedings descended into a free-for-all of racial stereotypes, hearsay testimony and contradictions on the witness stand. Despite Conley's conflicting statements, the all-white jury accepted the word of the Southern black janitor over that of the Northern Jewish factory superintendent. Leo Frank was pronounced guilty and sentenced to death.

In 1913, the trial of Leo Frank was the longest in Georgia history.

Most Atlantans celebrated the verdict, but observers around the country considered it a mockery of justice. Editorials from New York to San Francisco called for a new trial. Frank's lawyers appealed the conviction, but were rebuffed at every step. In their last hope, they petitioned Georgia's outgoing governor, John Slaton to review the evidence. In an astounding turn of events, Slaton concluded that Frank had not received a fair trial. He commuted Frank's sentence from death to life in prison.

Meanwhile, an elite group of influential Georgians, including a sitting judge and former governor, made plans to quietly carry out their own sentence on Frank. On a hot August afternoon, 25 men loaded up seven cars and drove from Marietta to the state penitentiary in Milledgeville where Frank was being held. They walked into the prison and, without breaking a lock or firing a shot, abducted the prisoner from his cell. They drove Frank to an oak grove near Mary Phagan's childhood home. A noose was placed around Frank's neck. A judge read the charges and proclaimed the sentence. Then the small table on which Leo Frank stood was kicked out from under him.

Gawkers at the lynching site. No one was prosecuted for the lynching.

The most famous lynching of a white man in America inspired two conflicting legacies. Some of Frank's lynchers joined with members of the original Ku Klux Klan, which had all but faded out after Reconstruction. The modern Klan they constituted just outside Atlanta would expand its mission from merely intimidating Southern blacks to spreading hate against Jews, Catholics and others across the country. Meanwhile, a fledgling organization found its mission in the Frank case. The Anti-Defamation League would become a powerful defender of civil rights and social justice for all in America and continues to this day.

Shot on location in Atlanta, the film illuminates the scandalous trial and its shocking aftermath with dramatic sequences created verbatim from transcripts, documents and letters. A strong cast is led by Will Janowitz (Leo Frank) and Seth Gilliam (Jim Conley). A remarkable trove of rare historic images and new interviews with authors, historians, politicians and descendents of the participants infuse these nearly century-old events with a special resonance for today. Set against the backdrop of an American South struggling to shed its legacy of bigotry and xenophobia, the story is both a first-rate murder mystery and a thought provoking look at racial, religious, regional and class prejudices in the early years of the 20th Century.

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The Likud Party (The Consolidation, in Hebrew) is a right wing political party in Israel founded by revolutionary leader Menachem Begin and was the first right-leaning party to lead the Israeli government. It is currently headed by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

Likud started out as a group of both left and right-wing parties - including Herut, Liberal Party, Free Center, National List, and Labor Movement for Greater Israel - that united in 1973 just before the elections to the 8thKnesset. The party's electoral list for the Knesset was drawn up from representatives of the various movements based on an agreed formula.

Chosen to head the party was the veteran leader of Herut and former Etzel commander, Menachem Begin. Begin, who until the establishment of the Likud, had led the Herut Party as the hawkish right wing marker on the Israel political map, chose to lead the newly created party in a more moderate manner. From its inception, the Likud Party adopted the principles of social equality, a free market economy, and preservation of Jewish tradition and culture, values that were largely shaped according to the teachings of Zeev Jabotinsky.

Likud first came to power in 1977, in what would eventually be referred to as the Upheaval, an election that marked the first time since Israel's independence that a right-wing party would lead the government. As Prime Minister, Begin led the State to the historic peace agreement with Egypt, the bombing of the atomic reactor in Osiraq, Iraq and also oversaw the Israel Defense Forces during Operation Peace for Galilee. Under Begins leadership, the Likud raised the banner of Jewish settlement in Judea & Samaria and in Galilee, and introduced the Jerusalem Law, which established the status of united Jerusalem as the capital of the State of Israel.

In 1983, Begin retired his post and Yitzhak Shamir was appointed Prime Minister in his place. Shamir served as Prime Minister on behalf of the Likud on and off from 1986 to 1992. As Prime Minister, Shamir took part in the Madrid Peace Conference and also enthusiasticaly promoted the historic Jewish immigration from the Soviet Union and from Ethiopia in Operation Solomon.

Benjamin Netanyahu was elected to lead the Likud after Shamirs retirement in 1993. Three years later, Netanyahu led the party to a sweeping electoral victory and became the ninth Prime Minister of the State of Israel.

In 1999, Netanyahu retired from politics and was succeeded by Ariel Sharon as party leader. In 2001, Sharon defeated then-Prime Minister Ehud Barak in the elections and returned Likud to power. During his term of office, Sharon led Operation Defensive Shield and ordered the construction of the security fence to help protect Israel from Palestinian terrorism in the West Bank. In summer 2005, Sharon forged ahead with his Gaza disengagement plan, and following a major split in Likud over the disengagement, Sharon left the party at the end of November 2005 to form the new Kadima Party.

After Sharon left, Netanyahu was once again made leader of Likud and returned the party to power in 2009. In October 2012, Netanyahu and Avigdor Lieberman, head of the Yisrael Beiteinu party, announced that their parties would merge ahead of the January 2013 elections and would be called Likud Beiteinu.

At the January 2013 elections, Likud-Beiteinu won just over 23% of the vote and was awarded 31 seats in the Knesset.

A primary election was held on December 31, 2014 after the sudden dissolution of the 33rd government and 19th Knesset earlier that month, with Danny Danon challenging Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu for the party's leadership. Netanyahu won easily, and with the poor showing of right-wing members of the party such as Moshe Faiglin, the results represented a victory for the party's moderates. After forming the first government without any of the religious parties in the last election, the defection of centrists in the coalition has led Netanyahu to turn once again to these parties as potential coalition partners.

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Likud,Hebrew in full Likud-Liberalim Leumi, English Unity-National Liberals, right-wing Israeli political party. It was founded in September 1973 to challenge the Israel Labour Party, which had governed the country since its independence in 1948, and first came to power in 1977, with Menachem Begin as prime minister. For decades thereafter, Likud alternated in government with the Labour Party, forming coalitions with minor parties, especially those with an ultrareligious or a nationalist ideology. Because of the countrys political fragmentation and unique security needs, Likud and Labour have sometimes entered into so-called unity governments with each other.

At its founding in 1973, the Likud coalition was dominated by the Gahal bloc, which consisted of the Herut (Freedom) party and the Liberal Party (Miflaget ha-Liberali). The Herut had its roots in the Russian Jewish Zionism of the 1920s and 30s and was formally organized in 1948, the year of Israels independence, in the merger of preindependence groups such as the Irgun Zvai Leumi. Some of the groups had been considered terrorist organizations by the British authorities. Begin, a Polish-born Jew, had been leader of the Irgun. The other member of the Gahal bloc, the Liberal Party, was formed in 1961 in the merger of the General Zionist Party (which was active from 1948 to 1961) and the smaller Progressive Party. Staunchly Zionist, it advocated retention of all territories conquered by Israel in the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. The other partners in Likud were relatively small, though they were often influential.

During Begins prime ministry (197783), Israel signed a peace treaty with Egypt, for which Begin was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize with Egyptian Pres. Anwar el-Sdt, and launched a controversial invasion of Lebanon. Although Begins peace initiative was popular both at home and abroad, it alienated many party stalwarts who opposed the return of any territories. In 1983 he was succeeded as prime minister and party leader by Yitzak Shamir, who governed in coalition with the Israel Labour Party from 1984 to 1990. Likud was ousted from government by a Labour-led coalition in 1992, and in 1993 Shamir was succeeded as party leader by Benjamin Netanyahu, who led the Likud coalition back to power in 1996. Netanyahu was defeated in 1999 by Labours Ehud Barak, but in 2001, capitalizing on increasing attacks by Palestinians against Israelis, Likud candidate Ariel Sharon convincingly defeated Barak. With Israel facing attacks from Palestinian militant groups, Sharon subsequently formed a unity government with Labour. In 2003 Likud doubled its seats in the Knesset from 19 to 38; after Labour refused to join a coalition, Sharon formed a coalition government with Shinui, a centrist party, the National Religious Party (Mafdal), and an electoral coalition representing nationalist and Russian voters. In 2005 a Likud-led government under Sharons leadership oversaw a complete pullout of Israeli soldiers and settlers from the Gaza Strip. Many Likud members opposed Sharons disengagement policy, and in November 2005 he left Likud to form the centrist party Kadima (Forward), taking many Likud moderates with him. Kadima won the largest share of seats in parliamentary elections in March 2006; by then the party was led by Ehud Olmert, after Sharon had suffered a debilitating stroke. Likud, led by Netanyahu after Sharons departure, fared poorly in the election, finishing fourth. In the 2009 general election, Kadima again led with the most Knesset seats (28); this time, however, Likud finished in second place, a single seat behind Kadima. Because of the close and inconclusive nature of the results, it was not immediately clear whether Netanyahu or Tzipi Livniwho had been elected to lead Kadima in September 2008would be invited to form a coalition government. Netanyahu was able to gather the support of a number of key parties in the days that followed, and, in spite of Likuds second-place finish, Pres. Shimon Peres invited Netanyahu to form the government.

For elections in 2013, Likud ran in a combined list with the nationalist Yisrael Beiteinu party. Both parties kept their own political platforms. The LikudYisrael Beiteinu bloc won the largest number of seats, returning Netanyahu to the prime ministership. However, the alliance fell short of expectations, winning fewer seats than the two parties had won separately in 2009.

Early elections were held in March 2015. Although analysts predicted that it would be a tight race between Likud and the Zionist Union, a centre-left alliance comprising the Labour and Hatnua parties, results showed a surprising victory for Likud, which won 30 seats, more than any other party.

Ideologically, Likud is both conservative and nationalist. It took an equivocal stance toward the 1993 peace accord between Israel (signed for the country by the Labour-led government of Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin) and the Palestine Liberation Organization; although Likud supported a peace with guarantees of security, it opposed ceding major portions of land to Palestinian control and dismantling Israeli settlements in the territories that Israel had conquered in 1967. However, in subsequent years the party grew increasingly divided over its policies concerning Palestine. In the early 21st century it adopted a policy opposing the establishment of a Palestinian state under any conditions.

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Hamas (Arabic: ams, an acronym of arakat al-Muqwamah al-Islmiyyah Islamic Resistance Movement) is a Palestinian Islamic[10] organization, with an associated military wing, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades,[11] in the Palestinian territories and elsewhere in the Middle East including Qatar.[12] Hamas is designated as a terrorist organization by Canada,[13]Israel, Japan,[14][15] and the United States.[16]Australia and the United Kingdom have designated the military wing of Hamas, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, as a terrorist organization.[17][18] The organization is banned in Jordan.[19] It is not regarded as a terrorist organization by Iran, Russia,[20]Norway,[21]Switzerland,[22]Brazil,[23]Turkey,[24]China,[25][26][27][28] and Qatar.[29]

Based on the principles of Islamism gaining momentum throughout the Arab world in the 1980s, Hamas was founded sometime in 1988[30] soon after the First Intifada broke out, as an offshoot of the Egyptian Muslim Brotherhood,[3][4] which in its Gaza branch had been non-confrontational towards Israel, refrained from resistance, and was hostile to the PLO.[31] Co-founder Sheik Ahmed Yassin stated in 1987, and the Hamas Charter affirmed in 1988, that Hamas was founded to liberate Palestine, including modern-day Israel, from Israeli occupation and to establish an Islamic state in the area that is now Israel, the West Bank and the Gaza Strip.[32][33] The group has later stated that it may accept a 10-year truce if Israel withdraws to the 1967 borders and allows Palestinian refugees from 1948, as well as their descendants, to return to what is now Israel.[34][35][36][37]

The military wing of Hamas has launched attacks against Israeli soldiers and civilians. Tactics include suicide bombings, and since 2001, rocket attacks.[38][38][39][40][41][42][43] Hamas's rocket arsenal has evolved from short-range, homemade Qassam rockets, to long-range weapons that have reached major Israeli cities including Tel Aviv and Haifa.[44][45] The attacks on civilians have been condemned as war crimes and crimes against humanity by human rights groups such as Human Rights Watch.[46][47]

In the January 2006 Palestinian parliamentary elections, Hamas won a decisive majority in the Palestinian Parliament,[48] defeating the PLO-affiliated Fatah party. Following the elections, the Quartet (the United States, Russia, United Nations, and European Union) made future foreign assistance to the PA conditional upon the future government's commitment to non-violence, recognition of the state of Israel, and acceptance of previous agreements. Hamas rejected those changes, which led to the Quartet suspending its foreign assistance program and Israel imposing economic sanctions on the Hamas-led administration.[49][50] In March 2007, a national unity government headed by Prime Minister Ismail Haniyeh of Hamas was briefly formed, but this failed to restart international financial assistance.[51] Tensions over control of Palestinian security forces soon erupted in the 2007 Battle of Gaza,[51] after which Hamas took control of Gaza, while its officials were ousted from government positions in the West Bank.[51] Israel and Egypt then imposed an economic blockade of the Gaza Strip, on the grounds that Fatah forces were no longer providing security there.[52] In 2011, Hamas and Fatah announced a reconciliation agreement that provides for creation of a joint caretaker Palestinian government.[53] Progress stalled, until an April 2014 agreement to form a compromise unity government, with elections to be held in late 2014.[54]

In 2006, Hamas used an underground cross-border tunnel to abduct the Israeli soldier Gilad Shalit, holding him captive until 2011, when he was released in exchange for 1,027 Palestinian prisoners.[55] Since then, Hamas has continued building a network of internal and cross-border tunnels,[56] which are used to store and deploy weapons, shield militants, and facilitate cross-border attacks. Destroying the tunnels was a primary objective of Israeli forces in the 2014 IsraelGaza conflict.[57][58]

Hamas is an acronym of the Arabic phrase or Harakat al-Muqwama al-Islmiyya, meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement". The Arabic word 'Hamas' () means "enthusiasm".[59][60] The Hamas covenant interprets its name to mean "strength and bravery".[61]

Hamas comprises three interrelated wings the social welfare and political wings, which are responsible for the social, administrative, political, and propaganda activities of Hamas, and the military wing, which is engaged in covert activities, such as acting against suspected collaborators, gathering intelligence on potential targets, procuring weapons, and carrying out military attacks.[62]

The Majlis al-Shura (consultative council) is the group's overarching political and decision making body. It includes representatives from Gaza, the West Bank, Israeli prisons, and the exiled external leadership, the Political Bureau. Under this Shura council are committees responsible for supervising Hamas activities, from media relations to military operations. In the West Bank and Gaza, local Shura committees answer to the Shura council and carry out its decisions.[62]

Hamas's highest decision-making body is its Political Bureau, which consists of 15 members. Before the beginning of the Syrian Civil War, it operated in exile in Damascus, Syria. The bureau is elected by members who select their representatives in local Consultative Councils in specific geographic regions. The councils then nominate representatives to the General Consultative Council, and the Political Bureau is elected by members of the General Consultative Council.[2]

The Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades, Hamas's military wing formed in 1992, is named in commemoration of influential Palestinian nationalist Sheikh Izz ad-Din al-Qassam. Armed Hamas cells sometimes refer to themselves as "Students of Ayyash", "Students of the Engineer", or "Yahya Ayyash Units",[63] to commemorate Yahya Ayyash, an early Hamas bomb-maker killed in 1996.[48] Since its establishment, the military capability of Hamas has increased markedly, from rifles to Qassam rockets and more.[64]

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Apr. 30, 2015

Witnesses say demonstrators in Gaza, protesting unemployment, poverty and dire living conditions, were beaten with sticks and herded into jeeps by Hamas security officials. MORE

United Nations internal inquiry finds that Israeli military actions killed 44 Palestinian civilians in seven United Nations schools during 2014 conflict in Gaza and that no weapons were found in those buildings; notes that other vacant UN-run schools had been used by Hamas to store weapons; Sec Gen Ban Ki-moon criticizes Israel for attacks and Hamas for misuse of facilities; weighs whether to seek reparations from Israel alone or from Palestinian militants as well. MORE

Federal Judge Brian M Cogan upholds verdict finding Arab Bank liable for supporting 24 terrorist attacks after allowing money linked to Hamas to be sent through its banks; grants bank's motion to remove two attacks from case, due to insufficient evidence; denies bank's motions for new trial and expedited appeal. MORE

Amnesty International report accuses Palestinian groups, including military wing of Hamas, of war crimes and flagrant disregard of civilian lives during summer 2014 war in Gaza. MORE

Nicholas Kristof Op-Ed column underscores degree of misery for Palestinians in Gaza six months after latest Israeli conflict there, with thousands of homeless people enduring harsh winter conditions; notes that plight of Gazans is result of Israeli siege on one side, closing of border with Egypt and continued provocations toward Israel by Hamas; warns that another war may be brewing. MORE

Three Israelis and six Palestinians are indicted in connection with smuggling ring that provided unauthorized raw materials to Gaza; Israeli authorities say materials were intended to build military infrastructure for Hamas. MORE

Dalia Shurrub, who lives in southern Gaza, is prohibited from seeing her fiance Rashed Sameer Faddah, who lives in West Bank, because of border restrictions; thousands of Palestinians are suffering from separation of two territories especially since Hamas took power in Gaza in 2007; exits through Israel are strictly controlled, limited only for humanitarian cases. MORE

Israel's state comptroller says investigation is underway into moves by military and political leaders during 50-day war with Hamas in Gaza in 2014; statement is country's latest attempt to stop International Criminal Court inquiry into its conduct. MORE

Competing checkpoints run by Palestinian Authority and militant group Hamas at border of Gaza and Israel have come to represent fragmentation among Palestinians and breakdown of reconciliation pact established in 2014; pact, signed in April, was intended to establish consensus government, but divisions have remained. MORE

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BACKGROUND

HAMAS formed in late 1987 at the beginning of the first Palestinian intifada (uprising). Its roots are in the Palestinian branch of the Muslim Brotherhood, and it is supported by a robust sociopolitical structure inside the Palestinian territories. The groups charter calls for establishing an Islamic Palestinian state in place of Israel and rejects all agreements made between the PLO and Israel. HAMAS strength is concentrated in the Gaza Strip and areas of the West Bank.

HAMAS has a military wing known as the Izz al-Din al-Qassam Brigades that has conducted many anti-Israel attacks in both Israel and the Palestinian territories since the 1990s. These attacks have included large-scale bombings against Israeli civilian targets, small-arms attacks, improvised roadside explosives, and rocket attacks.

The group in early 2006 won legislative elections in the Palestinian territories, ending the secular Fatah partys hold on the Palestinian Authority and challenging Fatahs leadership of the Palestinian nationalist movement. HAMAS continues to refuse to recognize or renounce violent resistance against Israel and in early 2008 conducted a suicide bombing, killing one civilian, as well as numerous rocket and mortar attacks that have injured civilians. The US Government has designated HAMAS a Foreign Terrorist Organization.

HAMAS in June 2008 entered into a six-month agreement with Israel that significantly reduced rocket attacks. Following the temporary calm, HAMAS resumed its rocket attacks, which precipitated a major Israeli military operation in late December 2008. After destroying much of HAMAS infrastructure in the Gaza Strip, Israel declared a unilateral cease-fire on 18 January 2009.

HAMAS and Fatah in April 2011 agreed to form an interim government and hold elections, reaffirming this pledge in February 2012. HAMAS departed its long-time political headquarters in Damascus in February and dispersed throughout the region as Syrian President Bashar al-Asads crackdown on opposition in the country made remaining in Syria untenable for the group. In May 2012, HAMAS claimed to have established a 300-strong force to prevent other Palestinian resistance groups from firing rockets into Israel. Conflict broke out again in November. While HAMAS had worked to maintain the cease-fire brokered by Egypt that ended the week-long conflict, other Palestinian militant groups flouted the cease-fire with sporadic rocket attacks throughout 2013 and 2014. Fatah and HAMAS in April 2014 agreed to form a technocratic unity government headed by PA Prime Minister Rami Hamdallah and to hold legislative elections within six months. HAMAS has not renounced violent resistance against Israel even while pursuing reconciliation with Fatah.

HAMAS flag

In July 2014, the uneasy calm between HAMAS and Israel broke down completely after three Israeli teenagers were kidnapped and killed in the West Bank in Junedeaths ascribed by Israel to HAMASand a Palestinian was killed by Israeli settlers in revenge. Retaliatory rocket attacks by HAMASs military wing and other Palestinian militants in the Gaza Strip escalated into the longest and most lethal conflict with Israel since 2009.

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HAMAS (Islamic Resistance Movement) - Terrorist Groups - NCTC

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Posted By admin on May 12, 2015

The History of Hamas is an account of the Palestinian Islamist[1][2]fundamentalist[3][4][5] socio-political organization with an associated paramilitary force, the Izz ad-Din al-Qassam Brigades.[1][6][7] Hamas () ams is an acronym of arakat al-Muqwamat al-Islmiyyah, meaning "Islamic Resistance Movement".

Hamas was established in 1987, and has its origins in Egypts Muslim Brotherhood movement, which had been active in the Gaza Strip since the 1950s and gained influence through a network of mosques and various charitable and social organizations. In the 1980s the Brotherhood emerged as a powerful political factor, challenging the influence of the PLO,[5] and in 1987 adopted a more nationalist and activist line under the name of Hamas.[5] During the 1990s and early 2000s, the organization conducted numerous suicide bombings and other attacks against Israel.

In the Palestinian legislative election of January 2006, Hamas gained a large majority of seats in the Palestinian Parliament, defeating the ruling Fatah party. After the elections, conflicts arose between Hamas and Fatah, which they were unable to resolve.[8][9][10] In June 2007, Hamas defeated Fatah in a series of violent clashes, and since that time Hamas has governed the Gaza portion of the Palestinian Territories, while at the same time they were ousted from government positions in the West Bank.[11][12]Israel and Egypt then imposed an economic blockade on Gaza and largely sealed their borders with the territory.[13][14]

After acquiring control of Gaza, Hamas-affiliated and other militias launched rocket attacks upon Israel, which Hamas ceased in June 2008 following an Egyptian-brokered ceasefire.[15] The ceasefire broke down late in 2008, with each side accusing the other of responsibility.[16] In late December 2008, Israel attacked Gaza,[17] withdrawing its forces in mid-January 2009.[18]

With its takeover of Gaza after the 1967 war with Egypt, Israel hunted down secular Palestinian Liberation Organization factions, but dropped the previous Egyptian rulers' harsh restrictions against Islamic activists.[19] In fact, Israel for many years tolerated and at times encouraged Islamic activists and groups as a counterweight to the secular nationalists of the PLO and its dominant faction, Fatah.[19][20]

Among the activists benefited was Sheikh Ahmed Yassin, leader of the Muslim Brotherhood in Gaza, who had also formed the Islamist group Mujama al-Islamiya, a charity recognized by Israel in 1979. Israel allowed the organization to build mosques, clubs, schools, and a library in Gaza.[19]

Yitzhak Segev, the acting governor of Gaza in 1979, said he had no illusions about Yassin's intentions, having watched an Islamist movement topple the Shah as Israel's military attache in Iran. However, according to Segev, Yassin and his charity were "100% peaceful" towards Israel during this time, and Segev and other Israeli officials feared being viewed as an enemy of Islam. Segev maintained regular contact with Yassin, met with him around a dozen times, and arranged for Yassin to be taken to Israel for hospital treatment.[19]

Also, Segev said, Fatah was "our main enemy."[19][21] Islamists frequently attacked secular and leftist Palestinian movements, including Fatah, but the Israeli military avoided getting involved in those quarrels.[19] It stood aside, for example, when Mujama al-Islamiya activists stormed the Red Crescent charity's headquarters in Gaza, but Segev did send soldiers to prevent the burning down of the home of the head of the organization.[19]

In 1984 the Israeli army received intelligence that Yassin's followers were collecting arms in Gaza. Israeli troops raided mosques and found a cache of weapons.[19] Yassin was arrested, but told his interrogators the weapons were meant to be used against secular Palestinians, not Israel. The cleric was released a year later and allowed to continue to develop his movement in Gaza.[19]

Around the time of Yassin's arrest, Avner Cohen, an Israeli religious affairs official, sent a report to senior military officers and civilian leadership in Gaza advising them of the dangers of the Islamic movement, but this report and similar ones were ignored.[19] Former military intelligence officer Shalom Harari said the warnings were ignored out of neglect, not a desire to fortify the Islamists: "Israel never financed Hamas. Israel never armed Hamas."[19][22]

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