JNS News Briefs: December 18, 2014

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Israel’s Lieberman to boycott Swedish counterpart’s visit over Palestinian state recognition
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman is refusing to meet with Swedish Foreign Minister Margot Wallstroem during her upcoming visit to Israel next month, in response to Sweden’s recent recognition of a Palestinian state.

In October, Sweden became the first major European Union member nation to officially recognize Palestinian statehood. According to a report by Israel’s Channel 2, Lieberman is upset that the Swedish government did not listen to Israeli input on the matter, as opposed to other European countries that did consult with Israel on the issue before their legislatures recently voted in favor of a Palestinian state.

On Wednesday, Lieberman accused Palestinian Authority [PA] President Mahmoud Abbas of duplicity in interviews with Arabic and international media, saying, “I read an interview [Abbas] gave in Egypt. … He spoke about six million refugees trying to return to Israel, including himself. … [He expressed] the same uncompromising stances, the same worldview as Hamas.”

“When he is interviewed here [in Israel], he says the right of return doesn’t exist, but in Arabic, he says the opposite,” said Lieberman. “We want a real, serious partner. … We need the Europeans to understand that if they want to see peace, the PA must also be responsible—not to escalate diplomatic efforts in the international arena, but to come to the negotiating table.”

Israeli military courts aim to cut off Hamas funding
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) In the wake of a European Union (EU) court removing Hamas from the EU’s terror blacklist, Israeli military courts are countering that move by imposing harsher penalties on anyone caught transferring funds to terrorist groups.

The shift in Israel Defense Forces (IDF) policy began last week, Israel’s Channel 2 reported Thursday, with a precedent-setting ruling that increased the fine imposed on offenders who provide and transfer funding to Hamas. So far, the penalty had been a fine of up to 20 percent of the sum in question. Now, the court can impose fines as high as the entire sum, or even higher.

The IDF said the new policy’s objective is to target the financial infrastructure of terrorist organizations. The decision was fueled by the understanding that terrorist organizations, namely Hamas, rely heavily on these money transfers to carry out attacks.

“It is time to drastically change the way we address the issue,” said Lt. Col. Morris Hirsch, an attorney at the Judean military court. “This decision will address the issue of terrorist money transfers. It might be a game-changer.”

The precedent-setting ruling came in the case of a Palestinian woman convicted of transferring $25,4000 to a Hamas operative in Gaza at her son’s behest. The woman was fined $12,700 and sentenced to a year in prison. According to Hirsch, the court deals with dozens of illegal money transfer cases each year, with some cases involving sums in the millions.

“Terrorism survives on this money. That is why we have decided to cut off the supply,” Hirsch said.

Obama announces renewal of diplomacy with Cuba after Alan Gross release
(JNS.org) Following Wednesday’s release of Jewish-American aid worker Alan Gross from a Cuban prison, President Barack Obama announced his intent to normalize relations between the U.S. and Cuba after a five-decade diplomatic stalemate.

Gross was a subcontractor for the U.S. Agency for International Development who went to Cuba to help the Jewish community there access the Internet and received a 15-year prison sentence for what the Cuban government called “crimes against the state.” He marked his fifth year of incarceration on Dec. 3, and his health had deteriorated drastically.

Gross’s release and the thawing in diplomatic tension are a product of secret negotiations that have lasted for more than a year and were facilitated both by the Canadian government and Pope Francis.

“Today, America chooses to cut loose the shackles of the past, so as to reach for a better future for the Cuban people, for the American people, for our entire hemisphere and for the world,” Obama said in a video statement.

“It’s time for a new approach,” he said.

In the wake of Obama’s announcement, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry has been instructed to begin discussions with Cuba on re-establishing diplomatic relations, including the re-opening of an American embassy in Havana. Travel and trade restrictions between Cuba and the U.S., including an embargo that was instated during the John F. Kennedy administration, will also be loosened.

At a news conference in Washington, DC, Gross said that the Cuban people are “in no way” responsible “for the ordeal to which my family and I have been subjected,” adding that the majority of Cubans are “incredibly kind, generous, and talented.”

Gross said his release on the first day of Hanukkah means that so far this is “the best Hanukkah I’ll be celebrating in a long time.”

Harvard suspends purchases from SodaStream after anti-Israel pressure
(JNS.org) After anti-Israel pressure, Harvard University Dining Services (HUDS) has suspended its purchase of soda and water machines produced by Israel-based SodaStream, the beverage carbonation company with a plant in Judea and Samaria.

HUDS made the decision in the wake of complaints by two pro-Palestinian student groups, the College Palestine Solidarity Committee and the Harvard Islamic Society.

The SodaStream plant in Ma’ale Adumim—which the company recently announced would close for “purely commercial” reasons and be replaced by a plant in northern Israel by late 2015—has been providing steady employment to 500 Palestinians and 450 Israeli Arabs this year, a fact that has been ignored by groups that have made the company a frequent target of the Boycott, Divestment and Sanctions (BDS) movement against Israel.

“The BDS movement seeks to demonize, isolate and destroy Israel as a Jewish state. It is a pro-hate, anti-peace movement. BDS proponents actively advocate for the privilege of one group’s rights over another. … Harvard University and HUDS are creating an environment that Israelis could rightfully perceive as hostile. If the presence of Israeli-made goods on campus creates discomfort for Harvard, then so, too, could the presence of Israeli students and academics,” Jacob Baime, executive director of the Israel on Campus Coalition, wrote in a letter to Harvard President Drew Faust.

Kenneth L. Marcus, president and general counsel of the Louis D. Brandeis Center for Human Rights Under Law, said in a statement, “In many ways, these micro-BDS efforts [such as boycotting SodaStream] are more dangerous than broader campaigns against the entire country of Israel, because they are sneakier and more deceptive.”

“They target one or two companies, or a short list of Israeli politicians or universities,” he said. “And they claim that they are not advocating boycotts against the entire Jewish nation. But they are based on the notion that it is okay to apply different standards to Israelis than to the rest of the world’s peoples. And they ultimately end up in the same place. All anti-Israel boycotts, whether limited or comprehensive, advance the same agenda, which is to deny Israel normalcy and legitimacy. This is a deeply anti-Semitic campaign and it must be understood as such.”

Earlier this year, Jewish-American actress Scarlett Johansson had drawn criticism from the U.K.-based charity Oxfam International for appearing in a Super Bowl TV commercial for SodaStream, leading her to quit her role as a global ambassador for Oxfam.

American-Jewish couple names son after slain Israeli Druze police officer
(JNS.org) A Jewish couple from New York has named their newly born son after Israeli Druze police officer Zidan Saif, who died while defending Jewish worshippers during last month’s Palestinian terrorist attack at a synagogue in Jerusalem’s Har Nof neighborhood.

Alexander and Jennifer Chester named their son Yaakov (Koby) Zidan.

“Zidan Saif was a member of Israel’s Arabic Druze minority, a community of proudly patriotic Israelis. Like other Druze, Zidan served in the IDF, and after his service he became a policeman in Jerusalem,” Alexander Chester wrote on his Facebook page.

“Three weeks ago, when he heard of a terrorist attack on a synagogue, he didn’t hesitate for a moment because he wasn’t Jewish. He ran into a service much like this one in a room much like this one, and gave his life saving the lives of others praying in that room. He wasn’t just a Jewish hero, he was a hero for humanity,” Chester added.

Rinal Saif, Zidan Saif’s widow, said that when the couple’s baby grows up, “everyone will ask him why his name is Zidan. And then he will explain that in 2014, a hero police officer was killed in the State of Israel, and people will remember and remind others of my husband. That keeps me strong. I know that Zidan’s name will not be erased from the history of the state’s defense, even abroad. I have a lot of appreciation for the couple and I am very grateful to them for their decision. I would like to meet them. I am certain that when our baby girl Larin grows up, she will be very proud to know that someone was named after her father.”

Iran and Hamas mend ties
(JNS.org) Iran and the Palestinian terror group Hamas have mended their political and military ties, which were strained by differences over the Syrian civil war, a Hamas leader said.

“I believe that bilateral relations between us and the Islamic Republic of Iran are back on track,” Hamas senior leader Moussa Abu Marzouk said, Reuters reported.

Last week, a Hamas delegation reportedly visited Iran in an effort to repair their ties. Saudi Arabia, Iran’s regional foe, proceeded to express anger over Hamas’s rapprochement with Iran, calling on Hamas to suspend any contacts with Tehran.

“Some Saudi intelligence officials officially contacted some Hamas leaders outside the Gaza Strip regarding recent developments in relations between Hamas and Iran,” the Hamas-affiliated Al-Rai News Agency said on Monday.

For many years, Hamas relied on Iran and its partners, Syria and Hezbollah, for military and financial support. That changed after Hamas’s 2012 fallout with Iran and Syria over the Syrian civil war, which forced the closure of the Palestinian terror group’s Damascus offices.

EU still considers Hamas a terror group, bloc’s envoy to Israel says
(JNS.org) European Union (EU) Ambassador to Israel Lars Faaborg-Anderson said that the 28-member bloc of countries still considers Hamas to be a terrorist organization, despite an EU court’s decision on Wednesday to remove the Palestinian terror group from its blacklist.

“It’s a technical, procedural decision that the court has reached. It doesn’t change the political position of the EU vis-à-vis Hamas, which is still that it’s a terror organization,” Faaborg-Andersen toldThe Times of Israel.

“It’s important to point out that this has no immediate effect in terms of unfreezing the sanctions that we have against Hamas,” he said. “We have an asset freeze against Hamas and Hamas members and that will stay in place.”

Faaborg-Anderson also said that Hamas is “deliberately mischaracterizing” the court’s move. Senior Hamas leader Moussa Abu Marzouk called the decision a “correction of a historic mistake.”

“Hamas is a resistance movement and it has a natural right according to all international laws and standards to resist the occupation,” he toldReuters.

While the EU’s General Court ruled that Hamas should not be listed as a terrorist organization, it stated that its decision was made on procedural grounds and did not constitute a “substantive assessment” of the issue.

Canada, Australia boycott Geneva Convention conference over concerns of anti-Israel bias
(JNS.org) Canada and Australia on Wednesday boycotted a conference in Switzerland discussing the Fourth Geneva Convention and the situation in the Palestinian territories due to concerns about the conference’s anti-Israel bias.

“Canada has conveyed its deep concerns and has communicated clearly that it will neither attend this conference nor lend it any credibility,” Canadian Foreign Minister John Baird said in a statement earlier this week.

“Canada is deeply disappointed by the convening of this one-sided and politicized conference, which serves only to single out one country, Israel, for criticism,” he said. “Canada has complete faith in the strength of the rule of law in Israel, and we believe the Israelis are capable of investigating matters surrounding the events that took place in Gaza in the summer of 2014.”

Australian Ambassador to Israel Dave Sharma, meanwhile, said on Twitter that Australia “will not be attending today’s special conference in Geneva on the Fourth Geneva Convention.”

The Fourth Geneva Convention—which provides for humanitarian protections for civilians in a war zone and all 196 members of the U.N. are signatories —has often been used by critics of Israel to condemn Israeli actions in the Palestinian territories.

At the Swiss conference, 126 of the 196 parties to the Fourth Geneva Convention adopted a declaration that humanitarian law must be followed in areas affected by the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the Associated Press reported.

The declaration also said that Israel should “fully and effectively” respect the Fourth Geneva Convention.

“This is a signal and we can hope that words count,” said Paul Fivat, Switzerland’s special ambassador for the Geneva Conventions.

EU Parliament supports Palestinian state based on pre-1967 lines
(JNS.org) Members of the European Union’s (EU) parliament on Wednesday passed a resolution supporting “in principle recognition of Palestinian statehood and the two-state solution.” The measure backs a Palestinian state based on Israel’s pre-1967 lines, borders deemed indefensible by the current Israeli government.

The resolution—passed in a 498-88 vote, with 111 abstentions—also advocated “the development of peace talks” between the Israelis and Palestinians. The EU Parliament said it is reiterating “its strong support for the two-state solution on the basis of the 1967 borders, with Jerusalem as the capital of both states, with the secure State of Israel and an independent, democratic, contiguous, and viable Palestinian State living side by side in peace and security on the basis of the right of self-determination and full respect of international law.”

The move comes after Portuguese, French, Irish, Spanish, and British legislatures all recently passed symbolic resolutions that recognized a Palestinian state, in addition to the Swedish government officially recognizing Palestinian statehood.

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