Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu warned us that he was about to say something ridiculous but said it all the same: both he and Israel care more about Palestinians than their own leaders do. "I'm going to say something now that some of you will not believe. But I'm going to say it anyway because it's true," is how Netanyahu began a controversial new video that his office uploaded to YouTube last week. He proceeded to say that "innocent and impoverished Palestinians were denied vital aid supplied from nations around the world". Netanyahu was referring to the recent arrests of two Palestinian aid workers accused by Israel of siphoning off humanitarian aid worth tens of millions of dollars and funneling it to Hamas. Mohammed Halabi, the director of the Gaza branch of the charity organization World Vision, was arrested by the Shin Bet security service, charged with being a Hamas operative who infiltrated World Vision and diverted millions of dollars to Hamas' military wing. Shortly after Halabi was indicted, the Shin Bet arrested Wahid Bursh, a Gazan who works for the UN Development Program. According to the Shin Bet, Bursh has confessed to abusing his position as an engineer in the program to renovate houses damaged during the 2014 Gaza war in order to assist Hamas in various ways. "Hamas used this stolen money to build a war machine to murder Jews," Netanyahu said. The cases against Halabi and Bursh are still shrouded in mystery and have been disputed. World Vision has contested the Israeli case against Halabi, claiming that the sums Halabi allegedly siphoned off for Hamas – $7.2 million annually over five years – are much bigger than the budget of the group's Gaza branch over the past 10 years. World Vision's questioning of the numbers have led some to suggest that the charges against Halabi and Bursh are merely a political ploy, part of Israel's efforts to persecute humanitarian NGOs. So does this mean Netanyahu cares more about Palestinians than their leaders? Of course not. As prime minister, Netanyahu has initiated two wars that left Gaza in ruins and killed a hugely disproportionate number of civilians. He has championed an expansion of settlements, did nothing but stall during peace negotiations that stopped more than two years ago, maintained the inhumane Gaza blockade, and famously reneged on his commitment to a Palestinian state two days before last year's election. Netanyahu was right when he said in the video that Israel "treats wounded Palestinians from Gaza in its hospitals," and "facilitates the entry of humanitarian aid into Gaza." He simply forgot to mention how those Palestinians got wounded in the first place, and why humanitarian aid to Gaza has to go through Israel in the first place: the nine-year blockade that decimated Gaza's economy and prevented most people from leaving Gaza to become essentially the world's largest prison. Netanyahu has been elected prime minister of Israel four times. He has served all together 10 years, and upon the completion of his current term he will become the longest-serving prime minister in the history of Israel. Maybe more than any of Israel's 14 prime ministers, he has done the most damage to the Palestinians. He has endorsed a Palestinian state alongside Israel but with the following conditions: the full demilitarization of the proposed state, that Jerusalem would be undivided Israeli territory, and that the Palestinians should recognize Israel as the Jewish national state. He rejects the right of return for Palestinian refugees and claims it is not possible to stop settlement building in the West Bank. Netanyahu's extraordinary video claim was made in English, obviously intended for an international audience; there are no Hebrew subtitles. He himself was astonished over his own statement which literally means Palestinians should be thankful for living under occupation. "That sounds incredible, right?" It certainly does.
