High school matriculation exams held in Sderot despite rocket fire
(JNS.org) Many high school students in Sderot were forced to sit through their matriculation exams on Thursday under continual Color Red sirens as rocket fire continued from the Gaza Strip on southern Israel.
Aviv Levy, a 10th grader who took his communications exam on Thursday, told Israel Hayom, “The exam was stressful, because of the material and also because of the Qassams. There was a Color Red siren just before the test started. Before that, they gave us instructions about what to do and how to stay calm, and that’s what we did.”
Mori Arbel, principal of the national-religious Amit high school in Sderot, was initially concerned that students might not show up for exams.
“In the end, only one student didn’t come,” he said. “The students’ strength is admirable. Our students and their families have great fortitude.”
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Pro-Assad hackers warn of ‘nuclear leak’ in Dimona on IDF Twitter account
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Syrian hackers breached the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit’s Twitter account in English overnight Thursday, falsely claiming the Negev Nuclear Research Center in Dimona had suffered a leak as a result of a rocket attack.
The hackers from the Syrian Electronic Army, which backs Bashar al-Assad’s government, posted the following message on the IDF’s official website: “#Warning: Possible nuclear leak in the region after 2 rockets hit Dimona nuclear facility.”
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit promptly deleted the tweet and responded, “Our Twitter account was compromised. We will combat terror on all fronts including the cyber dimension.”
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Gaza flotilla activist Dror Feiler barred from entering Israel
(JNS.org) The administrative court in Jerusalem approved the decision of Interior Minister Gideon Sa’ar to ban radical left-wing activist Dror Feiler from entering Israel after he made a request to visit his 90-year-old mother, Israel Hayom reported.
Feiler, a Swedish citizen who renounced his Israeli citizenship, has taken part in three flotillas, including the Mavi Marmara, which tried to break the blockade on Gaza in 2010. After the incident, he was banned from Israel for 10 years.
In 2004, Feiler and his wife created an exhibit called “Snow White and the Madness of Truth” at Stockholm’s Museum of National Antiquities, which showed a sailboat floating in a basin of red water, symbolizing blood. On the boat was the image of a female suicide bomber Hanadi Jaradat, who murdered 21 Israelis in an October 2003 attack in Haifa.
Jerusalem District Attorney Nadav Binenbaum proved that Feiler’s mother had visited Sweden four months prior to the plea, and flew abroad six times in the last five years, indicating that Feiler can see his mother outside Israel.
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Christian aid groups assisting Iraqi Christians fleeing ISIS
(JNS.org) Christian Solidarity International (CSI), a U.S.-based Christian humanitarian organization, has teamed up with the Iraqi-based Assyrian Christian group Hammurabi Human Rights Organization (HHRO) to provide aid to Iraqi Christians and others fleeing the rising terrorism of Islamic State in Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS).
CSI said that 300,000 people have fled the ISIS invasion, with many Christians and others fleeing to Iraqi Kurdistan or to the Nineveh Plains region, home to many Iraqi Christians. HHRO reported that nearly 500 Christian families from the city of Mosul were among the displaced in the Nineveh Plains.
On June 25, ISIS jihadists also began shelling the Iraqi Christian city of Hamdaniya in the Nineveh Plains region, about 20 kilometers from Mosul. Nearly all of the city’s 50,000 people fled.
“The shelling started at 3 p.m. on Wednesday (June 25), when I was looking after the children. I’d been very nervous since ISIS took Mosul, but the shelling started without warning. The shells landed every 30 minutes, and the Kurds were returning fire,” Marwa, a displaced Christian woman, told CSI.
“We stayed up all night, and left at 7 a.m. on Thursday. Most of the people left before us. We have no idea why this happened, or what has become of our home,” said Marwa.
CSI said its team arrived in Iraq on June 26 to assist HHRO on the distribution of CSI-funded aid to 140 displaced families in Bandwaya, a Christian town north of Mosul, near Hamdaniya.
The groups distributed relief aid, including food baskets, milk, infant formula, household items, and other essential needs.
Before 2003, it was estimated that around 130,000 Christians lived in Mosul, Iraq’s second-largest city, but only about 10,000 remained before the recent ISIS invasion. Now, residents say around 2,000 Christians remain in the city.
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Jewish groups link Arab teen’s death with revenge before investigation completed
(JNS.org) Some Jewish groups have publicly linked the death of Arab teen Mohammad Abu Khudair to revenge for the recent murder of the three Jewish teens, before the completion of an Israeli police investigation into how Khudair died.
Khudair was found dead in Jerusalem on Wednesday.
“The circumstances of his death remain uncertain, but it appears that Mohammed was not a party to nor instigator of the tragic events of recent days and weeks. But he now has paid the ultimate price regardless,” Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA) President Rabbi Steve Gutow said in a statement Wednesday.
Union for Reform Judaism President Rabbi Rick Jacobs said, “We are shocked by the news today (Wednesday) of the apparent abduction and murder of an Arab teen and the suspicion that this horrid act may be motivated by those seeking vengeance for the deaths of Naftali Frenkel, Gilad Shaar, and Eyal Yifrach.”
United Synagogue of Conservative Judaism CEO Rabbi Steven Wernick said Thursday, “When I learned that an Arab teen was murdered in Jerusalem, apparently in retaliation for the murder of three Jewish teens, my mind went immediately to the words of Torah we will read in a few weeks: Tzedek, tzedek tirdof, ‘Justice, justice shall you pursue.’ This admonition, perhaps the essence of Jewish values, is part of a legal framework prescribed in the Torah that resonates to this day—a vision of a society ruled by laws, not vengeance, and of ‘equal justice under law.’”
The Anti-Defamation League said it “strongly condemned a possible revenge killing of an Arab teen from East Jerusalem, along with an alarming surge of incendiary calls for revenge by some Israelis, which have followed the discovery and burial of the three Israeli teens abducted by Palestinians.”
Among the Jewish groups, the JCPA—which did not immediately respond to a request from JNS.org for a clarification of its statement—seemed to receive the most criticism for its remarks.
“Why was the Jewish Council compelled to issue this statement within less than 12 hours after news broke and without any investigation by Israeli National Police?” asked Helen Freedman, executive director for Americans for a Safe Israel, in an email.
Lori Lowenthal Marcus, U.S. correspondent for The Jewish Press, noted that the JCPA “put out a public statement less than 24 hours after the [Arab teen’s] death was discovered” and that the group “presented itself as judge, jury, and sound system with a verdict of guilt for Israel.”
“Why the rush? It took the JCPA three days to condemn the kidnapping of the three Israeli teenagers. Perhaps that was due to an abundance of caution—one would not want to falsely accuse anyone. If so, why the different standard here?” wrote Marcus.
The U.S. government was also quick to imply that the Arab teen’s death resulted from a revenge attack.
“The world has too often learned the hard way that violence only leads to more violence and at this tense and dangerous moment, all parties must do everything in their power to protect the innocent and act with reasonableness and restraint, not recrimination and retribution,” U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said Wednesday.
In addition to the potential motive of revenge, Israeli police are reportedly investigating the possibility that Khudair was murdered by members of his own family in an “honor killing” because he was gay.
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Riots rage in Jerusalem over Arab teen’s death
(JNS.org) Palestinian riots over the death of Mohammad Abu Khudair—a 17-year-old Arab teen who was found dead in Jerusalem on Wednesday—continued on Thursday in eastern Jerusalem, with rocks thrown and firecrackers shot at Israeli police officers. One officer was injured after being struck in the face with a sharp object, the Jerusalem Post reported.
An autopsy on Khudair’s body was also completed on Thursday by both Israeli and Palestinian officials. The results were being transferred to the police. The police do not have any suspects yet and have not stated whether the death was nationalistic or criminal in nature.
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Syrian-Jewish family smuggled to Israel
(JNS.org) A Jewish family was recently smuggled from Syria to Israel, news outlets reported Thursday after an embargo on the story was lifted.
The first two members of the family, which reportedly includes both Muslim and Jewish members, fled civil war-torn Syria several weeks ago. The rest of the family followed later. Their escape was orchestrated in part by Israeli-American businessman Moti Kahana, as well as the NGO Israel Flying Aid, which provides humanitarian aid to countries with which Israel does not have diplomatic relations. The Jewish Agency for Israel and the Israeli Ministry of Absorption were also aware of the rescue efforts.
The unnamed family is now living in a government absorption center near Tel Aviv. Details of their escape went unpublished for weeks, as the story was placed under an embargo due to fear for the family’s safety.
Syria once had a flourishing Jewish community, but the country’s Jewish population is now only about 20, according to the Jerusalem Post.
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