Israel Newsbriefs from JNS.org
EU bans trade with ‘parts’ of Israel
The European Union on Friday will issue a directive to all of its member nations that bans cooperation with Israel in Judea and Samaria, eastern Jerusalem, and the Golan Heights, all territories acquired by Israel in the 1967 Six Day War.
Israeli projects seeking EU funding will be required to sign a clause in their cooperation agreement stating that areas beyond Israel’s pre-1967 lines are not part of the agreement, effective in 2014. According to the EU directive, which was first reported by Haaretz, forbidden activities for EU members will also include the awarding of scholarships and research stipends to Israelis living beyond the pre-1967 lines.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu condemned the EU directive, saying that his government “will not accept any external edicts about our borders” and will attempt to reach a peace agreement with the Palestinians only through direct negotiations. Israel’s deputy foreign minister, Zeev Elkin, said the directive “fuels the Palestinian refusal to return to the negotiation table,” the Associated Press reported.
Senior Palestinian official Hanan Ashrawi called the EU’s decision the “beginning of a new era.”
London airport authority dumps Israel for United Arab Emirates
Greater London’s major government-owned transportation body has agreed to refuse business ties with Israel or any Israeli companies in exchange for a 10-year, £36 million sponsorship deal with Emirates Airline for a railway car running over the Thames river.
On Monday, Transport for London posted the contract with Emirates Airline online. The contract states that the company will default on the agreement if it engages with “(i) any Competitor; or (ii) any person who is a national of, or who is registered, incorporated, established or whose principal place of business is in a country with which the United Arab Emirates does not at the date of this Contract or at any relevant point during the Term maintain diplomatic relations.”
“This sets a dangerous precedent effectively allowing UAE money to dictate government policy through commercial contracts,” said Paul Charney, chairman of the Zionist Federation.
Saudi airline ripped for refusing
to fly Israelis in the USA
A New York mayoral candidate said on Monday that Saudi Arabian Airlines should be excluded from U.S. airports if it doesn’t stop discriminating against Israeli passengers.
“Saudi Arabian Airlines uses U.S. airports and yet bans Israeli citizens from being able to fly on their airline,” Bill de Blasio, currently the city’s Public Advocate, said.
A member of de Blasio’s staff called Saudi Arabian Airlines pretending to be an Israeli citizen trying to book a ticket to fly from JFK to Mumbai, India via Saudi Arabia. The Saudi Arabian Airlines booking agent told him that he wouldn’t be allowed to travel on the airline due to his nationality.
“It’s not only illegal; it’s an affront to who we are,” he said. — Israel Hayom
Remembering 850,000 Jews exiled by Arab states in 1947
More than 850,000 Jews fled or were evicted from their homes in Arab countries after Israel’s establishment. Now, a Knesset committee has chosen Nov. 30 as a national day to commemorate that event.
On Nov. 30, 1947, one day after the United Nations Partition Plan established a Jewish state, Arab nations carried out attacks on their Jewish communities.
The bill’s author sent a letter to Arab League Secretary-General Nabil Elaraby calling on the organization to “accept historic accountability for the humiliation, the suffering, and the losses incurred by innocent Jewish victims of the Arab world’s declared war against the State of Israel.”
Media silence follows 5,635
attacks on Jews in Israel
There were 5,635 attacks in the first half of 2013 against Jewish residents of Judea and Samaria, Jerusalem, and the greater Jerusalem region, according to figures released by Hatzalah Yehudah and Shomron, a volunteer emergency medical response organization in Israel.
Among these attacks, 611 involved Molotov cocktails and 5,144 were rock attacks. Eight attacks involved guns and knives. One death and 171 injuries resulted from the attacks.
Hatzalah spokeswoman Yehudit Tayar said, “If there is spray painting on the side of a mosque or an Arab’s tires are slashed it is on the news, but violence against us is ignored.”
Hamas making rockets designed to strike Tel Aviv: Report
More than seven months after Operation Pillar of Defense ended, Army Radio reported on Monday that Hamas’s weapons capabilities are returning to levels they were at before the conflict last November. The report specifically mentioned Hamas’s production of M75 eight-inch rockets, which can reach Tel Aviv and other cities in Israel’s heavily populated central region.
Polish parliament continues
ban on religious slaughter
Jewish groups have condemned a July 12 vote in the Sejm, the lower house of Poland’s parliament, rejecting a bill that would have reinstated the Polish government’s recognition of religious slaughter, including kosher and halal practices.
Poland instituted a ban on ritual slaughter in January, deeming a 2004 exemption that legalized kosher slaughter, or shechita, unconstitutional. On July 12, the Sejm voted 222-178 against a proposal that would have reinstated the exemption.
Report Saudi missiles are trained on Iran and Israel
Based on new satellite images, Saudi Arabia has apparently deployed ballistic missile batteries that have both Israel and Iran in their crosshairs, the British newspaper The Telegraph reported.
The images, analyzed by military experts at IHS Jane’s, a business intelligence company specializing in military and national security, “show a previously undetected surface-to-surface missile base in the Saudi desert, 200 kilometers (124 miles) southwest of the capital, Riyadh.”
HIS Jane’s report could escalate concerns about a growing arms race.
According to The Telegraph, Saudi Arabia currently has one launch pad pointing northwest, toward Tel Aviv, and another pointing northeast, toward Tehran. —Israel Hayom
Coptic Christian man found
decapitated in the Sinai
In the latest round of violence directed against Christians in Egypt, a Coptic Christian man was found decapitated in the northern Sinai Peninsula.
The Christian man was found with his hands and feet bound and his head severed, according to AFP. A security official said that “extremist groups,” likely referring to Islamic extremists, had captured the man on Saturday, the same day another Coptic priest was killed.
That Coptic priest, Mina Aboud Sharween, was shot while walking in the early afternoon in the Sinai coastal city of El Arish. The Egypt Independent reported that the gunman was believed to belong to the Muslim Brotherhood.
Since the ouster of Islamist Egyptian President Mohamed Morsi last week, Coptic Christians have grown more fearful of reprisal attacks from Islamic extremists. Lawlessness in the Sinai Peninsula has also been a major concern for Egyptian security forces and Israel. Several Islamic terrorist groups roam freely in the region, which has been neglected for several years.
Arab farmers ignore BDS, train in Israel to fix Gaza agriculture
Two groups of Arab farmers left Gaza this week to attend an agricultural seminar in northern Israel with the goal of improving Gaza’s agricultural industry. According to the office of the Coordination of Government Activities in the Territories (COGAT), 60 Gazans participated in the conference despite calls from the Boycott, Divestment, and Sanctions (BDS) movement calling to boycott Israeli products and industries.
Pro-Palestinians press Ohio
to pull Israel Bonds investment
Seventeen pro-Palestinian organizations in Ohio signed an open letter demanding that the state pull its $80 million investment in Israel bonds.
Palestine solidarity organizations, the International Socialist Organization chapters in Cincinnati, Columbus and Toledo and pro-Palestinian groups at Kent State University, Ohio State University, University of Toledo and Oberlin College endorsed the letter.
The letter stated that the investment “shames the state of Ohio and poorly reflects upon the character” of the state’s citizens.
But state treasurer Josh Mandel said Israel Bonds generate three to four more times the yield of U.S. Bonds and are a “safe, secure and responsible” investment for Ohio tax dollars. —Cleveland Jewish News
Twitter releases user data over anti-Semitic French tweets
Twitter has released data identifying users to French authorities in response to a January ruling by a French court regarding anti-Semitic tweets posted in October 2012 under the hashtag #unbonjuif (#agoodjew). The hashtag was trending as the third-most tweeted subject in France, with tweets such as “a good Jew is a dead Jew.”
When a French court decided last January that Twitter must reveal the identities of users who sent out those anti-Semitic tweets, Twitter, which is bound by U.S. free speech laws, initially refused to release the data. France’s Union of Jewish Students (UEJF) then sued Twitter for 38.5 million euros.
After agreeing to release the data, Twitter said in a statement that the social network will work with UEJF “to fight racism and anti-Semitism,” and “to improve the accessibility of the procedure for notifications of illicit tweets,” Israel National News reported.
TripAdvisor calls Yad Vashem one of world’s top museums
The Yad Vashem Holocaust museum has been ranked fourth among the 25 best museums in the world by TripAdvisor, a leading travel website that crowdsources criticism and reactions of tourists from around the world, Israel Hayom reported.
“Very moving and inspirational, should be a lesson to us all, may it never happen again,” one visitor to TripAdvisor wrote. “We should never forget what this nation went through.”
“The displays are moving and informative, they will stay with you long after you leave this place,” another visitor wrote. “You may find yourself emotionally spent after you finish, but that is to be expected. But, you will take away a resolve that this cannot be permitted to happen to any race, anywhere, ever again.”
Yad Vashem was also a Traveler’s Choice 2013 winner on TripAdvisor. The award is only granted to institutions that consistently receive outstanding reviews and have an average rating of more than four out of five stars.
Ramadan mini-series employs anti-Semitic stereotypes
The Anti-Defamation League has condemned a mini-series being broadcast around the Middle East during Ramadan that depicts Jews as the enemies of Islam and employs anti-Semitic stereotypes such as Jewish greediness and large-scale conspiracies.
The series — titled “Khaiber” and airing on the satellite network Dubai TV, the Algerian 3 station, and Dream TV — focuses on a conflict between Muslims and Jews in the city of Khaiber.
“With Syria, Egypt and other countries in the Middle East going through historical upheavals, it is absurd and outrageous that the entertainment of the Ramadan season promotes the Muslim subjugation of caricatured Jews,” said ADL National Director Abraham H. Foxman.
Push to pull funds from Jewish groups offering forum to BDS
JCC Watch, a pro-Israel advocacy group, is holding protests on the second Thursday of each month until it sees new guidelines that prevent the UJA-Federation of New York’s funding of activities that give a platform to activists of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.
“They’re not telling their donors that they’re using their money to undermine the state of Israel,” Allen said of the charities.
Allen said he does not believe the 92Y itself condones or supports BDS. Rather, he believes the 92Y’s recent hosting of pro-BDS speakers has been “going on under the radar,” and he said JCC Watch is calling for the Jewish leadership of the 92Y to “regain control and establish guidelines.”
The rally was organized by JCC Watch outside the 92nd Street Y in Manhattan on July 11, in response to the Y’s invitation of pro-BDS speakers including Alice Walker and Roger Waters (who ultimately did not appear). UJA-Federation and 92Y officials did not immediately return requests for comment.
