Jewish American Heritage Month

Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

Under the shadow of the clashes in Jerusalem, the operation in Gaza and the sirens in much of the country this month, Or Segal, a fourth-year visual communications student at the Bezalel Academy of Arts and Design, decided to do something about it.

I wanted to work in a way thats quiet and strong, that wouldnt inflame things even more, she tells Haaretz. I chose to do so through brotherhood, using the tools that Im familiar with illustration and design.

With the help of fellow students Yael Volovelsky and Noa Peled, she asked students, lecturers and longtime illustrators to produce an illustration in memory of a child who had been killed in the most recent hostilities between Israel and Gaza. Over 65 children were killed from both sides over the course of the fighting, the majority of them Palestinian.

Everyone felt deep-down that they wanted to help and do something, Segal says. They posted the works of art on social media, and now the students are deciding what to do with them next.

The project calls for solidarity and recognition of the pain the current situation is causing in Gaza and in Israel, says Segal. The situation cant continue this way. The illustrations come from different places; some commemorate the child, some focus on the life he could have had, or on a better environment. Some are full of hope, and there are illustrations that grant the children a wish.

For example, Amit Trainin, an illustrator with a long history of teaching the visual arts, dedicated his illustration to Zaid Mohammed Talbani, who was killed two weeks ago in Gaza by Israeli fire. He was four years old. His sister Miriam was also killed in the strike, and his mother is still listed as missing. Its a childlike picture, made up of simple and colorful lines; in the center is an elephant with a boy laying on it.

I wanted to make an optimistic illustration, Trainin says. His death, as well as the way he was killed, is a violent and political issue that to me is irrelevant to the style. Hes a child, and he didnt experience much nature or freedom during his childhood.

As an illustrator, I chose to give him what I would have wished for him if hed lived. As if this could be his last memory not bombing and destruction, but the exact opposite freedom, nature. And I chose an elephant because its an animal of peace.

Illustrator Itzik Rennert, who leads Bezalels Masters in Design program, said that he couldnt choose just one child. That was too macabre for me, he says, so he drew a silhouette of a collective child in dark hues on a blue background.

Illustrator and comic book artist Hila Noam produced a digital illustration, in shades of red and yellow, featuring two unspecified children. They each carry a building on their back, from which each side is shooting at the other. As the endless violence continues, both children cry.

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Israeli illustrators commemorate the child victims of the Gaza war - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

Politicians call for our citizenship to be revoked, or worse like the former foreign minister Avigdor Lieberman, who said our heads should be chopped off, or the former education minister Naftali Bennett, who declared that he had killed many Palestinians and had no problem with it.

Since 2019, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has twice made electoral pacts with the overtly racist Jewish Power party, which is made up of followers of the notorious Meir Kahane, whose Kach party and offshoots were labeled terrorist organizations by the United States. Jewish Power is led by Itamar Ben Gvir, who says his hero is Baruch Goldstein, who gunned down 29 Palestinians as they prayed in Hebron in 1994.

All of this does not merely garner votes for Mr. Netanyahu, it also normalizes hatred of Palestinians. Young Jews are more radicalized than their parents, with polls showing that they do not want to live next to Palestinians and support revoking our citizenship.

This prejudice, racism and violence directed at Palestinians are not limited to the fringe in society it has become mainstream. In May alone, Mr. Netanyahus government allowed marches by violent Jewish supremacists through Palestinian neighborhoods of Jerusalem and into the Aqsa mosque compound. Israeli police officers and Jewish citizens have been offered de facto immunity for attacking Palestinians.

Indeed, our mere existence nettles Israels ruling elites, who insist on preserving the Jewishness of the state. My father, who is 82, still waits for the day when he does not have to live in fear that we will be evicted from our homeland. To be a Palestinian in Israel is to wait for the day when Israel will decide to forever rid itself of you.

How do I explain to my 7-year-old son what being a Palestinian citizen of Israel means? What future can he look toward, when the leaders of the government incite hatred against him? What audacious hope can he have when he is bound to face racism and discrimination in education, employment and housing?

For now, I try to shield him from the images on television and on our phones, but there will soon come a time when I cannot shield him from the reality that he is surrounded by people who consider him a second-class citizen.

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Opinion | The Discrimination Palestinian Citizens of Israel Face - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

In the 1950s, Israels internal security service, the Shin Bet, was spying on immigrants from North Africa. A document in its archive, recently released for publication, may explain why. It hints that the espionage was driven at least partly by fear that political leadership would emerge in the Mizrahi community: Jews originating in the North Africa and the Muslim countries.

Dated July 21, 1959, the document contains the minutes of a meeting chaired by Shin Bet leader Amos Manor, held in the context of disturbances in the Haifa neighbhood of Wadi Salib. That was the first revolt by members of the Mizrahi community against the establishment and against the rule by Mapai: the Land of Israel Workers Party, on the basis of which todays Labor Party arose. The disturbances were led by immigrants from North Africa protesting against deprivation and discrimination on the basis of ethnicity.

Manor is quoted in the document as saying:There will also be disturbances in the future, under the leadership of criminal elements. They can be broken quickly. However, leaders who want to take control are liable to emerge. This is liable to lead to a different form. In addition to the official leadership that exists at present, there are all kinds of leaders who hold positions abroad, who feel themselves to be discriminated against and are seeking release and revenge.

Dr. Shay Hazkani, a historian at the University of Maryland who researches the integration of Jews from the Arab countries and the East in Israel, believes that the document more than hints at what historians have called fear of Levantinization, that is: a reversal of the power relations in Israel between Ashkenazis and Mizrahis, the rise of Mizrahi soft power. However, he qualifies that one should be cautious about reaching categorical conclusions, including because the document has so many holes in it. In other words, parts of it have been censored; and it lacks a broader context.

This document is part of four pages Hazkany received recently from the Shin Bet following his petition to the High Court of Justice for the release of censored archival material about the organizations activity in themaabarot the transit camps for new immigrants. The material is still sparse, censored and lacking context but between the lines one may discern a number of interesting aspects that merit further study. One of the documents that have now been released is a report dated September 15, 1959, headed Service Activities with Regard to the Ethnic Disturbances. The document indicates that that the Shin Bet had begun intelligence activities in connection with the ethnic disturbances by immigrants from North Africa in late July that year.

The background to this, according the document, was disturbances in Wadi Salib, Migdal Haemek, and Beer Sheva. It states that it was Minister David Ben-Gurion who asked the Shin Bet to help the police prevent terrorist actions and hooliganism. Avraham Ahituv, later head of the Shin Bet under Prime Ministers Yitzhak Rabin and Menachem Begin, was put in charge of this activity. In this context, the Shin Bet did a survey in order to learn and examine the structure and mode of action of the ethnic activism in places where there are concentrations of North African immigrants in the cities and the immigrant towns. Following this examination, the document states, we have found the extensive presence of ethnic organizations among North African immigrants and it emerges that it is only from some of them that acts of hooliganism are liable to come.

The Shin Bet also recommended monitoring certain elements in Jerusalem, Jaffa and Acre in this context. It stated that there were no political or public elements backing the violent actions, apart from heads of Likud, who have just now submitted their slate to the Knesset, and some of whom are facing trial for incitement.

The reference was to a movement called North African Immigrants Likud, led by David Ben Haroush, one of the leaders of the Wadi Salib protest.

The Shin Bet justified the continued surveillance of the Mizrahi activists by saying: The election period must still be seen as another period for oversight until things settle down.

The election for the fourth Knesset took place in November of that year. The head of the Shin Bet assessed that the elections would mark the end of the protest. When the elections are held, the sting will be removed from this whole operation, he said at the meeting. He also mentioned a Shin Bet mission that was assigned to two agents. What exactly this mission was, we can only guess, Hazkani remarks.

As for the role the Shin Bet played in thwarting Mizrahi protest activity, one member of the organization defined the objective as follows: Preventing more serious things that could happen in the future. The details of this, further down on the page, remain censored.

Interestingly, within the agency itself at the time, there was criticism about the Shin Bet playing any part in thwarting the Mizrahi protest, Hazkani says. In the minutes, someone from the Shin Bet says: The question is whether we should be assigned this role at all, after earlier commenting that our role must be clarified.

Hazkani received the material following a High Court of Justice ruling in April on his petition asking to view classified Shin Bet materials, including reports on surveillance, wiretapping and counter-operations against political subversion, in the agencys parlance. The Shin Bet rejected his request to look at the material, citing national security.

The High Court sided with the Shin Bet and ruled that releasing material about the agencys activity in the transit camps in the 1950s could damage national security. Supreme Court President Esther Hayut wrote in the ruling: These are sensitive materials whose publication even now, 60 years later, has the potential to harm national security because they could reveal methods and means of the agencys operation.

However, in the course of reviewing its archival material, the Shin Bet informed the High Court that it had located a number of documents whose publication could be approved, subject to censorship. The court ruled that this publication should occur soon. The justices also ruled that the Shin Bet must conduct a new examination from time to time of the various details of information, in order to release those materials that, with the passage of time, may be revealed without cause for concern.

Hazkani says that the four pages he received are a real mockery and that given the Shin Bets announcement that it had many documents related to the Mizrahi matter, what was provided is obviously anecdotal, and of minimal scholarly value.

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Israel spied on Mizrahi Jews, then tried to hide it - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

ASHKELON, Israel The worst fighting between Israelis and Palestinians in seven years intensified on Tuesday night, as Israeli airstrikes began targeting Hamas offices in Gaza City and militants in Gaza fired rockets at the metropolis of Tel Aviv, the southern city of Ashkelon and Israels main airport.

In Gaza, at least 35 Palestinians, including 10 children, had been killed by Tuesday night, and 203 others were wounded, according to health officials. In Israel, five people were killed in strikes on Tel Aviv, Ashkelon and Lod, and at least 100 were wounded, according to medical officials.

Away from the military conflict, a wave of civil unrest spread across Arab neighborhoods as Palestinian citizens of Israel expressed fury at the killings in Gaza and longstanding complaints of discrimination inside Israel itself.

While the surge in strikes, the worst since 2014, brought fear to millions in Gaza and Israel, they nevertheless bolstered an unlikely pair: Hamas, the Islamist militant group that runs the Gaza Strip, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu of Israel.

For Hamas, the conflict has allowed it to revitalize its claims to the leadership of Palestinian resistance. It framed its rockets as a direct response to a pair of Israeli police raids on the Aqsa Mosque compound, a religious site in East Jerusalem sacred to both Muslims and Jews. In the process, the group presented itself as a protector of Palestinian protesters and worshipers in the city.

For Mr. Netanyahu, the distraction of the war, and the divisions it creates between the disparate opposition parties currently negotiating a coalition to topple him from power, have given him half a chance of remaining in office, just days after it seemed like he might finally be on the way out.

It is the story of every previous war between Israel and Hamas, said Ghassan Khatib, a politics expert at Birzeit University in the occupied West Bank. Both governments come out of it victorious, and the public of Gaza comes out of it as losers.

Both sides seized on the charged symbolism of the holy city. The Israeli military code-named its operation Guardians of the Walls, a reference to the ancient ramparts of the Old City of Jerusalem. The militants had their own code name: Sword of Jerusalem.

For the victims of the violence, the first 36 hours of the renewed conflict brought little but terror and loss. The Palestinian militants and Israeli military are unevenly matched the former armed with rockets, the latter with fighter jets and a sophisticated antimissile defense system, the Iron Dome, partly financed by the United States.

Israeli airstrikes aim for strategic targets in densely populated Gaza, killing civilians even as Israel insists it takes measures to avoid them. Hamass rockets, on the other hand, aim for civilian population centers but often miss the mark.

Osama Soboh, a 31-year-old civil servant in Gaza City, lost his mother, Amira, and brother, Abdelrahman, when an Israeli strike on their apartment block aimed at a militant leader also took out his family.

This is my mom, Mr. Soboh said by phone on Tuesday afternoon. Its a very hard thing to say farewell to the most precious person you have on earth.

Mr. Soboh questioned why Israel had targeted a civilian building. Its not a military barracks, its not posing any danger to Israel, he said. This was an old woman with a child with cerebral palsy.

Thirteen miles to the north, in a sleepy suburb of Ashkelon, in Israel, a grandmother trod across the shards of glass and detritus left by a Hamas rocket that had sliced through her apartment block.

What have I done wrong? asked Maria Nagiv, 61, a former soldier who was born in Ukraine. I didnt do anything and they still send us bombs.

Ms. Nagiv understood little about the events at the Aqsa compound that had preceded the attack.

What happened in Jerusalem? she asked as shards crunched beneath her feet. I havent been following anything about that.

Later that day, an Ashkelon City Council member, Amichai Siboni, ran through the citys streets, searching frantically for a bomb shelter, while bomb sirens sounded overhead.

There is a siren right now, Mr. Siboni said as he narrated his experience to an Israeli broadcaster. I am looking for a safe room in a supermarket. I see around me elderly shoppers getting down to the floor. They are anxious and holding on to each other on the ground.

In Gaza and Israel, the rockets and airstrikes reached an intensity considered rare for this early stage in a conflict here.

In Gaza, Israeli pilots quickly moved on from solely military targets, turning Tuesday to an apartment block said to house the home of a leading militant, and a tower block housing offices of several Hamas officials.

An Israeli military spokesman, Lt. Col. Jonathan Conricus, said early Tuesday that 15 militants had been killed in strikes by jets and unmanned drones.

As multiple salvos of rockets streaked out of Gaza in rapid succession, one hit a school in Ashkelon. The school was empty because the Israeli authorities had ordered all schools within 25 miles of Gaza closed in anticipation of rockets.

A giant fire raged on the outskirts of the city, where an oil facility was hit.

Unrest also broke out among Palestinian citizens of Israel, who were angered by the strikes on Gaza, the raid on the Aqsa compound and the looming expulsion of several Palestinian families from their homes in Jerusalem. Protesters waving Palestinian flags gathered in several Arab towns across Israel, some of them burning cars and Jewish properties.

Palestinians rampaged in the mixed city of Lod, where a state of emergency was declared early Wednesday. Protesters set fire to a synagogue and dozens of cars. One Palestinian man was fatally shot.

A popular, Jewish-owned fish restaurant went up in flames in Acre, and television images showed a Jewish mob stoning Arab vehicles in Ramla.

In a speech recorded in Qatar and aired on a Hamas-affiliated television channel, a senior Hamas political leader, Ismail Haniya, struck a triumphant tone.

We have managed to create an equation linking the Jerusalem and Gaza fronts, he said. They are inseparable. Jerusalem and Gaza are one.

For Hamas, analysts said the new round of fighting gives the group the chance to reclaim some of the luster it had as a resistance movement that had faded after years of governing the Gaza Strip. Since coming to power in 2007, Hamas has lost popularity because of what many Gazans see as its authoritarian approach and poor governance.

But its self-presentation as the defender of Jerusalem has allowed the group to piggyback on widespread anger at Israeli police behavior at the Aqsa compound. And it has also allowed the group to ride the coattails of a grass-roots campaign to prevent the eviction of the Palestinian families in Sheikh Jarrah, a neighborhood in East Jerusalem.

The families plight resonated widely because it embodied the broader effort to remove Palestinians from parts of East Jerusalem and of the past displacements of Arabs in the occupied territories and within Israel.

The events in Jerusalem became very popular among Palestinians, Mr. Khatib said. They wanted to move in support of that, in order to get credit.

The rocket fire also allows Hamas to outmaneuver President Mahmoud Abbas of the Palestinian Authority, which exerts partial autonomy in parts of the West Bank. Mr. Abbas recently canceled what would have been the first Palestinian elections in 15 years, denying Hamas the chance to legitimize itself through electoral success.

Now Hamas wants to prove its relevance through other means, said Mkhaimar Abusada, a political scientist at Al Aqsa University in Gaza.

Definitely what is happening is an indirect message to the Palestinian Authority and to Abbas, said Mr. Abusada. If he is not willing to reorganize the Palestinian internal house, thats another reason why Hamas is escalating.

The war also gives Mr. Netanyahu political breathing space.

Mr. Netanyahus opponents have three weeks to cobble together an unlikely coalition and their success depends on far-right Jewish politicians and Arab Islamists putting aside fundamental differences to join forces in government.

But a war with Gaza makes that less likely, since it becomes far harder for Arab politicians, who oppose confrontations with Gaza, to find common cause with right-wingers who firmly back military action.

Mansour Abbas, an Islamist politician whose party holds the balance of parliamentary power, canceled coalition talks on Monday, as military escalation appeared inevitable. And Defense Minister Benny Gantz, who has pledged to oust Mr. Netanyahu, is now distracted by the war effort.

It wont work, said Yaakov Amidror, a former Israeli national security adviser. Abbas cant justify to his public supporting a government that is fighting in Gaza.

Mr. Netanyahu, also sounding a note of defiance, suggested the hostilities might not end any time soon.

Hamas and Islamic Jihad have paid, and will pay, a very heavy price for their aggression, he declared in a late-night address. This campaign will take time.

But among civilians left grieving by the conflict, these political questions meant little.

In Beit Hanoun, northern Gaza, the al-Masri family buried two young boys who were killed on Monday evening.

Ibrahim, 11, and Marwan, 7, had been playing outside their home when a missile struck, according to their uncle, Bashir al-Masri, 25.

For Mr. al-Masri, the attack showed that Israel had no concern for civilian life.

They target buildings with children, they target ambulances, they target schools, he said by telephone. And all the world, beginning with America, says that people in Gaza are terrorists. But we are not terrorists. We just want to live in peace.

On Tuesday night, it was impossible to predict when that would come. The rapid escalation to high-value targets could mean that each side was ramping up for a major conflict.

It could also mean that each is trying to make a powerful final statement before the fighting ends.

But Colonel Conricus said Tuesday that the militarys air campaign was still in its early stages.

Reporting was contributed by Iyad Abuhweila from Gaza City, Myra Noveck and Irit Pazner Garshowitz from Jerusalem, and Gabby Sobelman from Rehovot, Israel.

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More Than 30 Dead in Gaza and Israel as Fighting Quickly Escalates - The New York Times

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

New Hope chairman Gideon Sa'ar has renewed on Thursday the coalition talks with Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid who is working relentlessly to form a government before his mandate expires on June 2.

Both parties' negotiating teams met on Thursday for the first time since talks between Yesh Atid and New Hope were halted amid Israel's latest operation in Gaza.

After Gaza, an Israeli-Palestinian struggle for identity: Aluf Benn, Noa Landau and Anshel Pfeffer

In a joint statement, they said there was "progress" and some agreements were reached. The two teams said they will continue talks in the coming days "in order to form a government."

Yesh Atid say that they have tried to set up a meeting earlier this week, but their efforts were rejected by Sa'ar's party. On Monday, Sa'ar ruled out joining a government led by Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Wednesday, Yesh Atid chairman Yair Lapid announced that he has reached an agreement between his party and Meretz, as he continues his efforts to form a government one week before his mandate expires.

Later on Wednesday, Yesh Atid negotiators met with Labor Party representatives and agreement between the parties is set to be signed on Thursday. Meanwhile, the Yesh Atid team is also negotiating with Defense Minister Benny Gantz's Kahol Lavan.

The Yesh Atid-Meretz agreement comes a day after Lapid reached a coalition deal with Yisrael Beiteinu, as he continues his efforts to form a coalition by the weeks end with all the parties in the anti-Netanyahu bloc.

Meanwhile, Yamina leader Naftali Bennett told his party Wednesday evening that he had threatened to suspend talks with Netanyahu's Likud if its supporters continue to attack him.

At a meeting with his partys Knesset faction, Bennett sharply criticized Netanyahu. Referring to the prime ministers residence, Bennett said, I am not holding negotiations in the face of terror the pressure is deliberate terror coming from Beit Balfour.

The pro-Netanyahu bloc had decided to renew pressure on Bennett and his No. 2, Ayelet Shaked, out of concern that Yamina may revive talks with Yesh Atid to form a government.

Bennetts remarks came amid growing fears about protests being organized outside the homes of Yamina Knesset members.

On Wednesday, Bezalel Smotrich, the chairman of the far-right Religious Zionism party, attacked Bennett and Shaked, saying that they had taken left right-wing voters off guard by creating the impression that a change government was no longer an option. But in practice, they continued to work quietly, under fire, is form a left-wing government with the supporters of Arab terror.

The pressure on Yamina leaders was turned up after Bennett in a Facebook posting at the start of the week didnt categorically deny that a change government was off the table. In the midst of recent hostilities with Gaza, Bennett had broken off talks with Lapid, although he refrained from saying this publicly and made known his decision in what was reported as closed discussions.

Shaked also failed in remarks she made on Wednesday to say a change government was off the table.

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Israel coalition talks: Lapid and Gideon Sa'ar resume negotiations halted during Gaza fighting - Haaretz

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

This architecture is, however, just one of the ways in which Iron Dome is unique. In fact, its very strengths and weaknesses reflect those of the country that developed it, epitomizing Israels interminable conflict with the Palestinians.

On the one hand, Iron Dome is the perfect example of Israeli ingenuity and improvisation, the journalist Yaakov Katz, who co-wrote The Weapon Wizards, a book about Israels arms industry, told me. But its very success is a reflection of Israels biggest problem. Iron Dome allows you to almost ignore the fact that you have a neighbor just across the border with thousands of rockets pointed at you, because they can no longer really harm you. Iron Dome allows you not to find deeper solutions for that problem. And thats very Israeli as well.

Read: Bibi was right

Iron Dome is incredibly popular among Israelis, and understandably so. Although Israel suffered a dozen fatalities during this months fighting, more than 240 Palestinians died. That discrepancy, largely due to the effectiveness of Iron Dome, also bears itself out in physical damage to homes, buildings, and infrastructure more broadly. Even during an intense conflict such as this one, the missile-defense system provides a sense of security.

But it also means many Israelis do not feel the urgency, or sufficient enough optimism, to press their leaders to solve the underlying problems causing the long-term crisis facing Gaza, where 2 million people live in a fetid, crowded coastal strip, under near-total blockade by Israel and Egypt since Hamas took over in 2007. Nor do many feel the need to address the wider historic conflict with the Palestinians that has been going on since before Israels founding in 1948. According to the pollster Dahlia Scheindlin, Israelis rank security first on their list of priorities, followed by financial concerns; resolving the conflict with the Palestinians typically ranks fifth or sixth, and is seen by Israelis as separate from the feeling of security. Youve got to ask yourself, Scheindlin told me, if Israelis focus on security as defined by a piece of military hardware rather than on the core problem itself, isnt that a false sense of security?

Much of what provides that sense of security is the visible deterrent that Iron Dome offers, cutting off rockets in the sky. What Israelis dont see is the true heart of the systemnot the interceptor missiles or the mobile batteries, but the mathematics. The algorithm that has been coded into the system, and that is constantly being improved upon, enables Iron Domes control center to track and predict the trajectories of incoming missiles, working out where they can be expected to fall, and issuing interception orders only if the point of impact is a built-up area, so as not to waste expensive interceptor rockets on harmless projectiles.

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The Costly Success of Israels Iron Dome - The Atlantic

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

The first group of foreign tourists in more than a year touched down in Israel on Thursday after the government began opening its borders following a steep drop in COVID-19 infections.

Small groups of vaccinated foreign tourists - up to 30 people - have been allowed to enter as of last Sunday and the Tourism Ministry expects 20 such groups to come from countries, including the United States, Britain and Germany, under a pilot programme until June 15.

The ministry then hopes to expand the number of groups and, in July, allow individual tourists.

Shortly after 4 pm (1300 GMT), United Airlines flight 90 from Newark, New Jersey landed with 12 Christian pilgrims, men and women of varying ages, studying theology at the Concordia Seminary in St. Louis, Missouri. They were welcomed by Tourism Minister Orit Farkash-Hakohen, who said: "You are the first of what I am sure will be many tourists returning to the Holy Land."

Led by Pastor Tom Zelt of the Prince of Peace Church, the group plans to visit Jerusalem, Nazareth, national parks and Christian sites, the Tourism Ministry said.

"Israel is ... healthy and vaccinated. Everything is now safely open," Farkash-Hakohen told the group.

The country had closed its borders to foreigners at the outset of the coronavirus pandemic in March 2020. A rapid vaccine roll-out that has vaccinated most adults has brought the number of active COVID cases to just 428 nationwide.

This has paved the way for Israel to allow vaccinated foreigners to enter the country and revive its tourism sector, although officials remain cautious over potential new variants.

Tourists are required to show negative PCR tests before flying and to take another test at Ben Gurion Airport after landing in Tel Aviv.

Groups will also need to take serological tests at their hotel to prove they have COVID-19 antibodies. They will need to quarantine until results come back, usually in a few hours.

Tourism in 2019 hit a record high of 4.55 million visitors, contributing 23 billion shekels ($7.1 billion) to Israel's economy, mainly via small and mid-sized businesses.

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First foreign tourists in more than a year land in Israel - Reuters

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

Any violations of Jerusalem will cause a regional war, warned Hezbollah secretary-generalHassan Nasrallahon Tuesday night, in his first speech since before Operation Guardian of the Walls began over two weeks ago.During the operation, Nasrallah did not make any statements, and Hezbollah officials remained relatively quiet, with only one or two statements made besides for an official statement issued by the terrorist movement after the ceasefire.Nasrallah stated on Tuesday that he had not made any statements in recent weeks because he had been sick. The Hezbollah leader delivered the speech in a quiet, raspy voice and appeared to have difficulty keeping his head up.

The IDF believes that the speech on Tuesday night was a mistake by Hezbollah, as Nasrallah was attempting to broadcast threatening messages, but looked weak and sick.

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The threat by Nasrallah comes after clashes were reported between police and Palestinians on the Temple Mount in recent days.

A number of rockets were fired from Lebanon toward Israel during the clashes, although analysts believe that the rockets were fired by Palestinian groups and not Hezbollah. It is unclear whether Hezbollah approved of the rocket launches.

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IDF: Nasrallah tried to threaten Israel, looked weak and sick instead - The Jerusalem Post

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

The worst violence in Jerusalem in decades has led to massive global street protests directed against Israel. Some even erupted in India. When not breast-beating on the streets, holding down with Zion placards, the humanist lobby wrote stirring editorials in Indian publications. Sample some headlines thought up by Desi bleeding hearts: Israels actions are destroying the moral legitimacy of its own claim and Zionists in Israel Have Hollowed Out Their Ties With Their Own History.

When these Lashkars of the Left found that their arguments were being soundly rebutted by those cautioning against equating Israel with Islamist terror group Hamas, they penned a veritable intifada against Indian nationalists. One of the articles seemed to suggest that pro-Israel Indians were really Hindutva votaries living their Islamophobia vicariously through Israels domination of Muslims.

To be sure theres nothing wrong in offering persuasive arguments in defence of what the Left believes are oppressed and colonised Palestinians. But when the Lashkars of the left exclusively single Israel out, one wonders if they have an agenda.

Around the time Israel and Hamas were locked in a battle of wits and rockets, another country in the region was unleashing terror. That country is Turkey. Supersonic jets and drones were scrambled by the Turkish government to rain bombs on several villages in northern Iraqs autonomous Kurdistan. Turkey claims that it is fighting terror, failing to mention there have been no major terror attacks on its soil in years. The latest reports suggest that several minority Christians have been forced to flee their bombed villages. Locals refer to the aerial attacks as an attempt at systematic ethnic cleansing. But were Indians shaken out of their apathy by columnists and protestors moralising over the privations of the Turkish state? No.

The question is why? Are Kurdish lives less important than Palestinian ones? Surely, not. The answer perhaps lies in the growing compact between the Left and reactionary Muslim groups. The left finds it useful to deploy the talents of Islamist groups in fomenting societal unrest against racism, neo-colonialism and globalisation. In fact, theres now even a term for it: Islamo-leftism. By taking on Turkey or other repressive Islamic states, the Left risks endangering this unholy alliance. So, Turkey gets a free pass while Israel gets pilloried.

Views expressed above are the author's own.

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The Indian Left selectively raged against Israel even as Turkey bombed its way into the annals of a barbaric h - Economic Times

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Posted By admin on May 27, 2021

Member states of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation are calling on the UN Human Rights Council to set up a permanent commission to report on alleged human rights violations in Israel, Gaza and the West Bank.

The move comes in the wake of this months 11-day conflict between Israel and terror groups in Gaza. If passed, it would mark an unprecedented level of scrutiny authorized by the UNs top human rights body.

The proposal by the OIC comes ahead of a special session of the Geneva-based council on Thursday to address the grave human rights situation in Gaza, the West Bank and East Jerusalem. The meeting was sought by Pakistan, the OICs coordinator.

The investigators, the text of Pakistans request said, should probe all alleged violations and abuses of international law linked to the tensions that sparked the latest violence.

The Hamas-run health ministry in Gaza said at least 243 Palestinians were killed, including 66 children and teens, with 1,910 people wounded in the violence. It does not differentiate between terror group members and civilians. The Israeli military maintained that it killed some 225 terrorist operatives and that the Palestinian death toll was in fact considerably higher than was reported. It said some of the civilian fatalities were caused by Hamas rockets falling short and landing in the Strip.

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Palestinian volunteers sweep dust in front of a building destroyed during the latest round of fighting, in Gaza Citys Rimal district on May 25, 2021. (MOHAMMED ABED / AFP)

Thirteen people were killed in Israel, all but one of them civilians, including a 5-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. Some 357 people in Israel were wounded.

During the fighting, outgoing International Criminal Court prosecutor Fatou Bensouda said the court may look into the fighting as part of its current probe into alleged war crimes in the region, which date back to the events leading up to the last major Gaza conflict in 2014.

But the Human Rights Council draft text goes far beyond the most recent conflict, also calling for investigators to probe underlying root causes of recurrent tensions and instability, including systematic discrimination and repression based on group identity.

The investigation should focus on establishing facts and gather evidence and other material that could be used in legal proceedings, and as far as possible should identify perpetrators to ensure they are held accountable, it said.

Long-standing and systemic impunity for international law violations has thwarted justice, created a protection crisis and undermined all efforts to achieve a just and peaceful solution, the draft text said.

The UN Human Rights Council in Geneva discusses a resolution condemning Israeli actions on the Golan Heights, March 22, 2019 (screenshot UN WebTV)

The session at the 47-member-state rights is slated to last all day.

A vote on the draft resolution is likely at the end of Thursdays session, which will be largely virtual.

Council spokesman Rolando Gomez says passage of the draft resolution would mark the first time that a commission of inquiry received a continuing mandate.

It remains unclear whether there will be enough support at the Human Rights Council to pass the resolution.

Twenty of the councils 47 members were among the 66 countries that backed holding Thursdays special session, which was requested by Pakistan and the Palestinian Authority.

The rights council holds three regular sessions each year, but can hold special sessions if at least a third of members support the idea.

Supporters of Israel rallying outside the UN building in Geneva as the Human Rights Council met, June 29, 2015 (World Jewish Congress)

Israel accuses the council of anti-Israel bias and has generally refused to cooperate with its investigators. Israels ambassador, Meirav Eilon Shahar, has called on member states to oppose Thursdays meeting.

The convening of yet another special session by the Human Rights Council targeting Israel is testament to the clear anti-Israeli agenda of this body, she said on Twitter.

Israel is the only country that is systematically discussed at every regular council session, with a dedicated special agenda item.

The standing agenda item and bodys overall anti-Israel stance were among the main reasons that the United States under former president Donald Trump decided to leave the council.

His successor Joe Biden has returned the United States to the fold as an observer, with an eye on membership, arguing that while the council disproportionate[ly] focuses on Israel, the US can be more influential from within it than it can from the outside.

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Muslim nations ask UN to form unprecedented permanent panel to critique Israel - The Times of Israel

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