Israeli High Court proposes compromise for Charlie Hebdo distribution
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Israel’s High Court of Justice on Tuesday discussed a petition filed by the Yisrael Beiteinu political party that requests the lifting of an injunction against distributing the French satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
In late January, after receiving threats, Israel’s Steimatzky bookstore chain announced the cancellation of a sales event featuring Charlie Hebdo. In response, Yisrael Beiteinu leader Avigdor Lieberman instructed party activists to purchase thousands of copies of the magazine’s Jan. 14 commemoration edition—which followed the Islamist terror attack on the publication’s Paris offices that killed 12 people—and distribute them to the public.
But in early February, Salim Joubran, an Arab judge serving on the Israeli Supreme Court, issued an injunction against Yisrael Beiteinu, prohibiting the party from distributing the Charlie Hebdo copies. Member of Knesset Ahmad Tibi (Joint Arab List) requested the injunction, arguing that Yisrael Beiteinu was violating campaign laws by distributing propaganda attached to a gift. Lieberman, however, has said that banning Charlie Hebdo distribution would “turn the state of Israel into a country that cows to threats and undermines freedom of expression.”
A three-judge High Court panel on Tuesday suggested a compromise in which the magazine could be distributed without its front and back covers. Both sides in the dispute have yet to respond to the proposal.
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Former French minister stands by remark that PM Valls ‘influenced’ by Jewish wife
(JNS.org) A former French foreign minister, 92-year-old Roland Dumas, has refused to apologize for comments he made last weekend that current French Prime Minister Manuel Valls is “probably influenced” by his Jewish wife.
“Everyone knows that he is married to someone… someone very good who has an influence on him,” Dumas said in an interview with the BFMTV television channel, as translated by the International Business Times.
Dumas was then asked if he believes that Valls is under Jewish influence, to which he responded, “Probably, I think so.”
“Of course [he is influenced by his wife]. Why not?” he added.
The French Socialist party, of which Dumas was a member, called the former foreign minister’s comments “unworthy of a Socialist decorated by the Republic.”
But in a subsequent interview with France 24, Dumas refused to apologize and stood by his earlier comments, saying that Valls “has personal alliances that mean he has prejudices.”
Valls is married to Jewish businesswoman and violinist Anne Gravoin. He has also been a vocal critic of the rising anti-Semitism in France. In the wake of the Islamist terror attack at a kosher grocery store in Paris last month, which killed four Jewish shoppers, Valls gave a passionate speech at the French parliament in which he said the country has not “shown enough outrage” about anti-Semitism.
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Argentine FM asks P5+1 powers to include Jewish center bombing in Iran talks
(JNS.org) Argentine Foreign Minister Hector Timerman wrote a letter to U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry in which he asked Kerry to include the resolution of the investigation into the 1994 bombing of the AMIA Jewish center in Buenos Aires as part of the ongoing negotiations between the P5+1 powers and Iran.
Argentine courts have accused a group of Iranians of planning the Jewish center attack, in which 85 people were killed. Iran has denied any involvement, but Alberto Nisman—the Argentine prosecutor who was found dead from a gunshot wound in his apartment on Jan. 18—was drafting a warrant for the arrest of Argentine President Cristina Fernández de Kirchner for allegedly secretly negotiating with Iran to avoid punishments for those behind bombing.
“I am asking you again that the AMIA issue be included in the negotiations with the Islamic Republic of Iran,” Timerman wrote in the letter to Kerry,Reuters reported.
The U.S. and the other P5+1 powers, however, are unlikely to grant the request because the negotiations are focused on the Iranian nuclear program.
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Egypt’s Pope Tawadros holds mass for Christians slain by Islamic State
(JNS.org) Egypt’s Coptic Pope Tawadros II on Tuesday led a mass to memorialize the 21 Egyptian Coptic Christians who were murdered by Islamic State terrorists in Libya.
The mass, held at the St. Mark’s Cathedral in Cairo, came amid the Egyptian government’s calls for the international community to convene and address the deteriorating security situation in Libya. Egypt launched airstrikes against Islamic State targets in Libya, killing dozens of terrorists.
In a statement, Egyptian President Abdel Fattah El-Sisi said he sent his foreign minister to Washington, DC and New York “to ensure that the international community lives up to its responsibilities.”
On Sunday, a video titled “A Message Signed With Blood to the Nation of the Cross,” released by the media arm of Islamic State, showed the beheadings of more than a dozen Egyptian Christians on a beach in Libya.
Coptic Christians comprise nearly 10 percent of Egypt’s population of 90 million, making them the largest Christian community remaining in the Middle East.
Many Egyptians, including Christians, work in Libya in the construction or service industries, in order to send money back home to support their families.
Pope Francis denounced the murders by Islamic State in a phone conversation with Pope Tawadros on Monday, expressing his “profound participation with the pain of the Coptic Church for the recent barbaric assassination of Coptic Christians by Islamic fundamentalists,” according to a Vatican spokesman.
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Yemen’s Jewish community considers leaving amid upheaval
(JNS.org) The ancient Jewish presence in Yemen may soon come to an end as fears grow among the country’s few remaining Jews over a deteriorating security situation there.
“Since last September, our movements have become very limited for fear of the security situation, and there are some members of the community who preferred to leave Yemen,” Yemenite Chief Rabbi Yahya Youssef told Reuters.
Yemen has been plagued by political and security instability since last month’s resignation of pro-Western president Abdu Rabu Mansour Hadi and the takeover of the capital of Sanaa by Shi’a Muslim Houthi militias. The former government had been a key U.S. ally in the fight against Al-Qaeda in the Arabia Peninsula (AQAP), a Sunni Muslim terror group that is also in conflict with the Houthis.
The Yemenite government had provided protection to the country’s tiny Jewish community, whose members had until recently lived for centuries in the northern highlands with Yemen’s Shi’a Muslims, but were evacuated in 2009 amid anti-Semitic attacks by Houthi fighters.
“We don’t want to leave. If we wanted to, we would have done so a long time ago,” Yahya said.
At one time, Yemen’s ancient Jewish population stood at around 40,000, but many left to go to Israel when the Jewish state was created in 1948. Up until a few years ago, around 200-300 Jews remained in Yemen. Those numbers now stand at less than 100.
“There are certainly discussions going on over options available regarding the Yemenite Jews,” an Israeli official told Reuters, citing security concerns of the community.
“But these are individuals who will have to make their own individual decisions about what to do,” the official added.
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