JNS news briefs: June 3, 2014


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Palestinian terrorist killed at Tapuach Junction after firing at Israeli soldiers

(JNS.org) A Palestinian terrorist opened fire at Israeli soldiers at the Tapuach Junction near Nablus late Monday night, just three days after soldiers apprehended another Palestinian terrorist wearing a suicide belt at the same location, Israel Hayom reported.

In Monday’s incident, which took place close to midnight, an Israeli border policeman was lightly wounded by the terrorist’s gunfire. Soldiers quickly returned fire and killed the terrorist.

Israel Defense Forces Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Benny Gantz, accompanied by Samaria Brigade Commander Col. Yoav Yarom, arrived at the scene shortly after the attack.

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CEOs welcome select students to special Birthright program

(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Birthright Israel Excel, a new program from Taglit-Birthright Israel, has brought 40 select students from North America in Israel for 10-week internships with the country’s leading companies in the business and technology fields.

The program allows the talented young students to become immersed in Israel’s busiest industries and to learn directly from top executives. The internship is the first part of a yearlong program aimed at integrating the students into the Israeli business world to give them the tools needed to become Jewish leaders in their respective communities.

This year’s Birthright Excel group recently arrived in Israel and attended an official opening ceremony at the Microsoft offices in Ra’anana, where they were joined by U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro and Taglit-Birthright Israel CEO Gidi Mark.

“This program gives excellent students an opportunity to intern at the leading companies in the Israeli market,” Mark said. “I have no doubt that [when they return] they will have central roles in the United States.”

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Islamists torch Christian-owned shops in southern Egypt

(JNS.org) A mob of Islamists burned several Christian-owned shops in a wave of violence directed against Christians in southern Egypt near the ancient city of Luxor.

The attack came just hours before the start of a trial for a young Christian man who is facing blasphemy charges over a series of Internet postings, The Associated Press reported.

Egyptian Christians have been disproportionately targeted in blasphemy cases. According to the U.S. State Department, nearly 40 percent of the defendants in blasphemy cases in Egypt are Christians, despite the fact that Christians constitute about only 10 percent of the population.

Islamists have also increasingly targeted Christian churches, homes, and businesses, in addition to abducting Christians for ransom or conversion to Islam.

“In only one province (El-Minia), its Coptic bishop recently revealed that between June 30 and the present time, he recorded 90 kidnap cases of Copts, some of whom have been killed even after their families paid the demanded ransom,” Halim Meawad—the Egyptian-born co-founder of Coptic Solidarity, a U.S.-based international Coptic Christian human rights organization— recently told JNS.org.

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