NYC Councilman Kalman Yeger could face sanctions and be “booted from the immigration committee after tweeting that ‘Palestine does not exist’ — but he refused to heed calls to apologize for the comment.” Of course Mayor Bill de Blasio is pushing for Yeger to apologize or be punished.
Yeger, like many others, has crossed the line of the currently acceptable public discourse by offending Muslim lobbies. His intention does not matter; nor does the fact that what he said was true. Yeger stated accurately:
My point was never about people. My point was about a location. A geographic reality and an international legal reality, a fact. There is no state by that name. There is no place by that name. That’s a fact. I didn’t make it up, I didn’t invent it, that’s official U.S. policy, that’s the policy of many, many nations around the world
Yeger has now been placed in the “racist” “Islamophobe” category, and are strenuous attempts to isolate and marginalize him. Meanwhile, Ilhan Omar and Rashida Tlaib are free to spew their anti-Semitism with impunity, and any opposition to them is deemed “Islamophobic.”
“NYC Councilman Kalman Yeger faces sanction after ‘Palestine does not exist’ tweet,” by Jillian Jorgensen, New York Daily News, March 28, 2019 (thanks to The Religion of Peace):
A Brooklyn city councilman could be booted from the immigration committee after tweeting that “Palestine does not exist” — but he refused to heed calls to apologize for the comment.
“Nope,” Councilman Kalman Yeger said when asked if he’d apologize. “For what?”
Yeger tweeted on Wednesday that “Palestine does not exist,” sparking outrage from activists and eventual condemnation from elected officials who said the remark was unhelpful in moving toward a two-state solution in the Middle East.
“He should definitely apologize, and I very vigorously condemned his comments in no uncertain terms, they have no place in New York City,” Council Speaker Corey Johnson said, adding that the city celebrates both its Jewish and Palestinian communities and that Yeger’s remarks were “dehumanizing.”
“They are comments that create some sort of erasure of the Palestinian experience and I find those totally unacceptable,” Johnson said.
But Yeger did not apologize — though he insisted his comments were not about the Palestinian people.
“My point was never about people. My point was about a location. A geographic reality and an international legal reality, a fact. There is no state by that name. There is no place by that name. That’s a fact. I didn’t make it up, I didn’t invent it, that’s official U.S. policy, that’s the policy of many, many nations around the world,” Yeger said.
The comments have led some to call for Yeger to be removed from the Council’s committee on immigration — which both Johnson and the committee’s chair, Councilman Carlos Menchaca, said was under consideration….
Moshe says
It may be helpful for NYC Councilman Kalman Yeger to revisits the trenchant insights of former U.S. President Barack Obama. In 2009, the first year of his historic Administration, President Obama met with a group of leading American Jewish leaders at the White House.
A Nobel Peace Laureate and brilliant student of history, the President sought to clear the air regarding Israel’s settlement activity and attitudes of American Jews toward the peace process.
At this landmark meeting, America’s transformational young leader instructed Israel and leading American Jews “to engage in serious self-reflection.”
Given former President Obama’s recent praise of pioneering Palestinian-American Congresswoman Rashida Tlaib (D-MI) and the emerging paradigm of intersectional rights as an essential element of American democracy, it is important for Councilman Kalman Yeger to get with the program. Senator Chuck Schumer (D-NY) and ADL CEO Jonathan Greenblatt (to cite only two outstanding American Jewish leaders) would never deny the existence of Palestine.
Yeger’s unfortunate statements, even if true in a narrow technical sense (but not true in a broader metaphorical sense), risk provoking or inflaming anti-Semitism in the progressive community.
Frederick says
Anti-Semitism is already alive and well among all of those your believe are ‘Palestinian’. Total destruction of the Jews (and Christians) is a fundamental aspect of Islam. Citing Obama for anything except his own futile and useless terms of office is simply stupid. By the way he got his peace prize after being in office two months for doing absolutely nothing and as for being a ‘brilliant student of history’ no one will ever know, because everything about him is still hidden. Only thing we know he was good at was reading from a teleprompter.
abad says
+1
Paul J Wheeler says
President Obama’s two terms were neither futile nor useless. He helped move this country closer to a European social democracy and removed some of the restraints on executive power with his famous “pen and telephone” remark. His use of executive agencies to punish and harrass political opponents represent a new high water mark in the attack on people whose crimes were to oppose the President’s policies or represent meaningful grassroots opposition to them. Lois Lerner didn’t work in a vacuum.
He deserved the Peace Prize. He wasn’t George W. Bush. Of course, I’m still waiting for my Peace Prize. I’m not George W. Bush, and I have not been George W. Bush for even longer than President Obama has not been George W. Bush.
mortimer says
So, Moshe, FEELINGS are more important than facts. We have observed you. Reality is what YOU say it is … even if it is fabricated.
Westman says
A brilliant student of oratory, perhaps; with a Nobel Prize for becoming POTUS. And Tlaib, a vulgar mouth F-bomber for Islam, is going to improve American-Islamic relations?
Just as the election of Donald Trump has forced the true intentions of the left to be on raw display, reactions to Yeger’s statements only identify the real anti-semites whose intention is aiding the annihilation of Israel.
There is no faction in “Palestine” that wants Israel to exist, with, or without, any peace agreement and boundary settlement.
The so-called leaders and Islamic factions of “Palestine” have robbed their people of billions, encouraged and carried out violence, yet, somehow they are reliable partners in a peace process?
In a way, Yeger is absolutely correct – there is not sufficient unity in the British-designated “Palestine” for any possible peace process. Without unity and stable government there is not, nor will be, a Palestine nation. All we see are warring factions and thieves who insist they are the “true” representatives of Palestinians. For some strange reason they all claim they are doing it for Allah.
Gordon Miller says
The land in question belongs to the Arabs (Palestinians) as much as New York City belongs to the Indians.
Halal Bacon says
Moshe, you forgot /sarc off
owensgate says
No, obama was a brilliant IDIOT of history, AND the Constitution, and no, the “Palestinians DO have a Nation. The one the Balfour Declaration and subsequent directives carved out for them. It’s called JORDAN. “Palestine” was a brief interlude in Roman History, and disappeared with the Fall of Rome. There is NO distinct Palestinian language, identity, culture – it is Hashemite Arab. Stop with the Islamic lies.
Michael Villano says
Pull your tongue out of Obama’s Jew-hating butt.
gravenimage says
I’m so tired of “Moshe” trolling us here.
windrush48 says
Yes, indeed, Yeger DID “cross the line” …. by speaking the TRUTH, unlike yourself ‘moshe’.
brenrod says
obvious sarcasm, LOL
Anjuli Pandavar says
I actually see this as a positive development. The reactions are predictable and go with the turf. What is positive here is that against the rising tide of PC, “virtue signalling” and kosher anti-semitism, one increasingly sees people who are fed-up with this nonsense speaking out forcefully and directly. Yeger, of course, knew what reaction to expect and was clearly ready for it.
Well done, Kalman Yeger. Even if this were not the Age of Cowards, you’d still stand out as a man of courage, both moral courage and intellectual courage.
mortimer says
The Demi-Semi-Commie-Crats will crush him and all Jews party members who refuse to condemn Israel.
mortimer says
correction JEWISH party members of the Demi-Commie-crat party
Elizabeth Baklaich says
Why should only the Israelis “… engage in serious self-reflection”?
Truth it truth, we must speak it!
There is NO reason for there to be “Palestinian refugees” these people are victims of their own “leaders”, they should have had a nation, a home and be thriving (look at the amount of money they have received!) It is a false narrative created to continue to persecute the Jewish people and take the land that is Israel.
https://youtu.be/O7ByJb7QQ9U
Elizabeth Baklaich says
*Truth is truth
abad says
The self-proclaimed “Palestinians” can always move to Saudi Arabia, they would be much better off there.
Dave says
He lacked the guts to state the full truth: it IS about the people, not just geography. The “palestinian” people were invented by the KGB.
Beneath the Veil of Consciousness says
Let’s not confuse anyone with the facts.
Rotem N. says
Well, he’s absolutely right.
The false term “Palestine” in modern age, was revived by the BRITISH politicians and referred to a political region – not a state and no people. It was meant to be a JEWISH state, as the mandatory law defines. also, Jewish communities who were living in “Palestina” were called “Palestinians” (see their birth certificates, adverts from those times, passports etc) and becuase of that ARABS rejected this term. ARABS saw themselves as a part of the great Arab Nation (“Uma Al-Arabia”). In the peel comittee the Arab represntor Awani Ibn-Abdul said “There’s no such thing as “Palestine”. “Palestine” is a term that the Zionists invented. “Palestine” is foreign to us”!
So who are the Atabs who falsely called “Palestinians” ?
These are migrants of several TRIBES and CLANS from all over the middle east, north Africa and east Europe. They maintain a tribal culture, never mix or married one another and keep loyal to their own family = tribe!
for further details and the real identities of those so called “Palestinians”, in this article:
https://en.mida.org.il/2018/05/16/origins-arab-settlers-land-israel-2/
elee says
There were Philistines. They were a Greek people. The tradition of their time was that they came to the Levant from Cyprus.
When the Romans made provinces of the region they called it Palestine, “land of the Philistines.” Did they do this to emphasize that the region was not under Semitic rule? Maybe.
The first Arabs show up in the histories of the region late in the time of the Two Kingdoms. The Semites of the Levant had a lot of names, of which neither Arab nor Philistine/Palestinian was one. Arabs seem to have first inhabited the region when their cult captured it in the 7th century. Oh and, real Philistines/Palestinians? Does any current inhabitant of that coast now identify as a descendant of Greek immigrants from a long time ago? It’s all a twisted thread of fictions.
Oh and before that cult swept out of “Arabia”? A lot, maybe a plurality, maybe a majority, of the population was Jewish. Hey Jews, any time you want to claim it back, that’s fine by me. I still don’t know why the Brits, after a couple of centuries of propping up the Ottomans, decided that the peninsula should become a “nation.”
mortimer says
ARABS AGREE THAT ‘PALESTINE’ is SYNONYMOUS WITH ‘JORDAN’ …
”Palestine and Transjordan are one, for Palestine is the coastline and Transjordan the hinterland of the same country.” – King Abdullah, at the Meeting of the Arab League, Cairo, 12 April, 1948
”We are the Government of Palestine, the army of Palestine and the refugees of Palestine.” – Prime Minister of Jordan, 23 August, 1959
”Palestine is Jordan and Jordan is Palestine; there is one people and one land, with one history and one and the same fate.” – Prince Hassan, brother of King Hussein, addressing the Jordanian National Assembly, 2 February, 1970
”There is no family on the East Bank of the [Jordan] River that does not have relatives on the West Bank … no family in the west that does not have branches in the east.” – King Hussein, addressing the Jordanian National Assembly, 2 February, 1972
”We consider it necessary to clarify to one and all, in the Arab world and outside, that the Palestinian people with its nobility and conscience is to be found here on the East Bank [of the Jordan River], the West Bank, and the Gaza Strip. Its overwhelming majority is here [on the East Bank] and nowhere else.” – King Hussein, quoted in An-Nahar, Beirut, 24 August, 1972
”The Palestinians here constitute not less than one half of the members of the armed forces. They and their brothers, the sons of Transjordan, constitute the members of one family who are equal in everything, in rights and duties.” – King Hussein, on Amman Radio, 3 February, 1973 (quoted by BBC Monitoring Service)
”The new Jordan, which emerged in 1949, was the creation of the Palestinians of the West Bank and their brothers in the East. While Israel was the negation of the Palestinian right of self-determination, unified Jordan was the expression of it.” – Sharif Al-Hamid Sharaf, Representative of Jordan at the UN Security Council, 11 June, 1973
”[Former Tunisian] President Bourguiba considers Jordan an artificial creation presented by Great Britain to King Abdullah. But he accepts Palestine and the Palestinians as an existing and primary fact since the days of the Pharaohs. Israel, too, he considers as a primary entity. However, Arab history makes no distinction between Jordanians, Syrians and Palestinians. Most of them hail from the same Arab race, which arrived in the region with the Arab Moslem conquest.” – Editorial Comment in the Jordanian Armed Forces’ weekly Al-Aqsa, Amman, 11 July, 1973
”The Palestinians and the Jordanians have created on this soil since 1948 one family — all of whose children have equal rights and obligations.” – King Hussein, addressing an American delegation, 19 February, 1975
“For tactical reasons, Jordan, which is a sovereign state with defined borders, cannot raise claims to Haifa and Jaffa, while as a Palestinian, I can undoubtedly demand Haifa, Jaffa, Beer-Sheva and Jerusalem. However, the moment we reclaim our right to all of Palestine, we will not wait even a minute to unite Palestine and Jordan.”- PLO representative Zouhair Muhsen in 1977, speaking to a Dutch newspaper
“There are no differences between Jordanians, Palestinians, Syrians and Lebanese. We are all part of one nation. It is only for political reasons that we carefully underline our Palestinian identity. … The existence of a separate Palestinian identity serves only tactical purposes. The founding of a Palestinian state is a new tool in the continuing battle against Israel.” –Zouhair Muhsen, PLO rep
“There is, in fact, almost nothing un-Palestinian about Jordan except for the royal family. Despite decades of official imposition of a Bedouin image on the country, and even Bedouin accents on state television, the Palestinian identity is still the most dominant … to the point where the Jordanian capital, Amman, is the largest and most populated Palestinian city anywhere. Palestinians view it as a symbol of their economic success and ability to excel. Moreover, empowering a Palestinian statehood for Jordan has a well-founded and legally accepted grounding: The minute the minimum level of democracy is applied to Jordan, the Palestinian majority would, by right, take over the political momentum.” – Mudar Zahran, Palestinian-Jordanian
”Palestine and Jordan were both under British Mandate, but as my grandfather pointed out in his memoirs, they were hardly separate countries. Transjordan being to the east of the River Jordan, it formed in a sense, the interior of Palestine.” – King Hussein, in his memoirs
“The Palestinians and Jordanians do not belong to different nationalities. They hold the same Jordanian passports, are Arabs and have the same Jordanian culture.” – Abdul Hamid Sharif, Prime Minister of Jordan in 1980.
”Jordan is not just another Arab state with regard to Palestine but, rather, Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan in terms of territory, national identity, sufferings, hopes and aspirations, both day and night. Though we are all Arabs and our point of departure is that we are all members of the same people, the Palestinian-Jordanian nation is one and unique, and different from those of the other Arab states.” – Marwan al Hamoud, member of the Jordanian National Consultative Council and former Minister of Agriculture, quoted by Al-Rai, Amman, 24 September, 1980
“The truth is that Jordan is Palestine and Palestine is Jordan.” – King Hussein of Jordan in 1981.
Dr. Martin Sherman, founder and executive director of the Israel Institute for Strategic Studies, recently wrote that Article 1 of the Palestinian National Covenant proclaims: “The Palestinian Arab people are…part of the Arab nation.” Article 12 baldly admits that a separate Palestinian identity is a ruse to further wider Arab interests. Thus, at an Arab League summit in 1987, convened in Amman, King Hussein conceded that Palestinian identity was merely a response to Jewish national claims, not driven by any authentic endogenic sentiment of uniqueness, stating, “The appearance of the Palestinian national personality comes as an answer to Israel’s claim that Palestine is Jewish.” –King Hussein of Jordan in 1987
elee says
Koran 33:28
CRUSADER says
“Palestinians” are in the majority in Jordan, anyway…..
The Treaty and diplomatic arrangements had Zioin-Israel gaining far more lands than what they ended up with, given what TransJordan represented…
Modernity is where it is now….
The world can better put attentiveness to learning other ways of coping rather than trying to claw back the parts of lands which make little sense: West Bank and Golan for Arabs… Crimea Peninsula for Russians…
Greedy bahsterds!!!
Allow the dynamic democratic capitalistic socially run nation of Israel be, and the rest of the region will benefit… Those who can’t cope have to steal from others, and that ain’t right. Arabs in the region should just put emphasis on having their own people do well by learning lessons from what works in the West, not to try to fight against that stream of progress and advancement.
James Lincoln says
NYC Councilman Kalman Yeger told the truth and saw no reason to issue an apology, which is rare today.
Nobody should issue an apology after telling the truth.
somehistory says
The perps are attempting to squelch the First Amendment…re: both religion and speech. Attempting to only allow the religion and speech of islam and moslims and those who wish to agree with moslims.
This man spoke the Truth, but in the age of the beast, this does not matter. He didn’t apologize for speaking the Truth and for this…he will likely lose his job and his paycheck.
The “beast” will not allow the “buying and selling” by those who refuse “the mark of the beast.”
In every country where moslims are taking part in government, they are taking over the public square and they are being allowed to determine what can and cannot be said and done by the rest of the public. They have convinced many that they must be placated…or else. The atmosphere will be full of nothing but lies, lies, and more lies. No Truth will be allowed.
elee says
Their world or ours?
Richard Cole says
I have been stating this same fact for years. There is no such state as Palestine. It is a factual statement that can be backed up very easily. The so called “Palestinians” have a homeland, the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
CRUSADER says
Why Isn’t There a Palestinian State?
Prager U / Maccabee Task Force
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=76NytvQAIs0
CRUSADER says
It would be good to produce such pithy videos on Jihad Watch issues, in particular.
Cool idea !!!!
grego says
Just find a set of pre-1970 encyclopedias and see if you can find ‘Palestine’ as a country. I have an old set and I am going to make sure my children get sets too.
CRUSADER says
Love it!
Go back to Old School.
Turn the page…
No, really! Turn a page!!!
gravenimage says
NYC Councilor Kalman Yeger faces sanction after tweeting “Palestine does not exist”
………………….
Kudos to Councilor Yeger for standing firm! A few days ago he also took Ilhan Omar to task for her antisemitic remarks.
Especially good to see this from a Democrat.
Mabog Nimda says
Some questions nobody seems to have an answer for:
– Is there a Palestinian national hymn? where can I hear it?
– Is there a typical Palestinian folk dance with typical local dresses, as so many local ethnies haveN
where can I see itN
– Is there a typical Palestinian dish they’re famous for? where can I eat it?
– Is there a typical Palestinian lanuage? where can I read it?
I’m very curious
Kepha says
Before 1948, the last independent entity centered on the land between the Jordan and the Med went under Roman rule in 4 BC, when Herod the Great, King of JUDAEA died.