Israel to allow non-Orthodox prayer at Western Wall
(JNS.org) In a historic decision on Sunday, the Israeli cabinet has voted to allow non-Orthodox Jewish prayer in an area especially designated for the purpose at the Western Wall in Jerusalem.
The new plan was approved by 15 government ministers, with five voting against. According to the plan, Israel also plans to build a new plaza where both men and women can pray together. The plaza will be near but separate from the Orthodox prayer plaza.
“I know this is a sensitive topic, but I think it is an appropriate solution, a creative solution,” Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said at the start of Sunday’s weekly cabinet meeting, during which the members voted on the plan, according to the Associated Press.
“The most complex problems usually require such solutions,” he said.
The decision is a “dramatic, unprecedented and critical acknowledgment” by Israel that the Western Wall should be accessible to different Jewish denominations, said the Jewish Federations of North America (JFNA), an umbrella group of American Jewish communities.
American Jews, many of whom are Reform and Conservative Jews, will particularly benefit from the decision.
“Though much work regarding the implementation of this decision still remains, it is because of our perseverance and commitment to Jewish peoplehood that we are measurably closer today to the ultimate symbol of that reality — one wall for one people,” the statement said.
*
Haifa babies born with smaller heads likely due to pollution
(JNS.org) Data from a study commissioned by the Haifa Municipal Association shows that Israeli babies born in or near Haifa are being exposed to higher levels of pollution, and are born with lower than average weight and head circumference measurements. Such babies’ measurements are 20 to 30 percent lower than those of babies born elsewhere in Israel.
The Haifa Bay area houses several oil refineries, power plants and other chemical plants along the port, all of which are known to cause pollution in the city. The study also showed that several towns on the outskirts of Haifa – Kiryat Haim, Kiryat Bialik, and southeast Kiryat Tivon – as well as the side of the Carmel Mountain facing the city’s industrial zone, show lung cancer and lymphoma frequency rates of up to five times Israel’s national average.
The findings were determined by looking at wind direction and determining how volatile organic compounds carried from the city’s factories might be causing the high morbidity rate.
“Even in the short term, low birth weight is a risk factor for death soon after birth and prenatal complications and even until old age, with diabetes and hypertension. There are also respiratory problems like asthma and cognitive problems such as decreased IQ,” said Dr. Hagai Levin, head of the health and environment discipline at the School of Public Health at the Hebrew University, Yedioth Achronoth reported.
This study is not the first to show similar findings. Data collected last year showed that 30 to 60 percent of cancer cases among Haifa children up to the age of 14 were caused by air pollution.
The Mayor of Haifa Yona Yahav said he was surprised Israeli government officials have voted in favor of expanding Haifa’s oil refineries, and that Israeli courts have ordered to reopen those refineries he had personally closed.
“We are fighting 24 hours a day,” he said, the Times of Israel reported.
However, the Haifa Region Association of Towns called the report “inaccurate.”
“When there are full and corrected results, we will be happy to bring them to the public’s attention,” a spokesperson from the association said.
*
Palestinian tries to stab IDF soldiers a day after Palestinian officer stabbing
(JNS.org) A Palestinian man tried to stab Israeli security forces in the Israeli village of Sal’it in Judea and Samaria on Monday. The man tried to cross a security fence into the village but was stopped. He attempted to stab the soldiers, but was shot and killed.
Palestinian sources identified the man as 19-year-old Ahmed Tobah. The incident came after a Palestinian police officer, 29-year-old Amjad Sukkari, shot and wounded three Israeli soldiers at a checkpoint leading to Ramallah on Sunday. Soldiers responding to the attack on the scene shot and killed Sukkari.
In a statement Palestinian police has released since the Sunday attack, it announced that “with great pride, the members of the Palestinian police eulogize the brave martyrdom of their colleague, Master Sergeant Amjad Sukkari, ‘Abu Omar’, who committed the operation,” the Jerusalem Post reported.
The Israeli military has since partially closed Ramallah, sealing off roads out of the city and citing “situation assessments.” The military is allowing only Ramallah residents and Palestinian Authority officials to enter the city, and only residents of other cities or humanitarian cases to exit until further notice, according to Yedioth Achronoth.
Also on Sunday a man driving a car with a Palestinian license plate tried to run over IDF soldiers at the Beit Ur A-Tahta checkpoint near Route 443. The soldiers shot and wounded the attacker, who was then transported to hospital.
*
NASA astronauts arrive for Israeli Space Week
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The annual Israeli Space Week honoring Israel’s first astronaut, the late Col. Ilan Ramon, kicked off on Sunday with much fanfare.
The events, which will run through Saturday, are organized by the Science Ministry and the Israel Space Agency. Participants will have more than 25 different activities to choose from, all free of charge, including space-related experiments and lectures and discussions with several astronauts: NASA’s Shannon Walker and Joseph Acaba, South Korea’s Soyeon Yi, and Italian-born Samantha Cristoforetti, from the European Space Agency. Former NASA astronaut Garrett Reisman will join them.
Ramon and six other crew members were killed when the Space Shuttle Columbia burned up on Feb. 1, 2003, as it re-entered the atmosphere on a trip back from space.
“The goal is to get as many young people as possible exposed to space research and develop their sense of curiosity in the sciences,” Israeli Science, Technology and Space Minister Ofir Akunis said Sunday.
*
Netflix buys Israeli TV show for teens
(JNS.org) The online streaming service Netflix, which recently opened operations in Israel, purchased its first Israeli television show.
Netflix acquired the adolescent-geared show “The Greenhouse” (HaKhamama in Hebrew), created by Giora Chamizer, from Nickelodeon and Yes, the Israeli business publication Globes reported.
Nutz Productions, the subsidiary of Israeli company Ananey Communications, which broadcasts Nickelodeon in Israel, will produce the U.S. version of the show. The Israeli series takes place on the shores of the Sea of Galilee. The American version, which will be filmed in Israel, is set near the Pacific Ocean in southern California. The title of the American show will remain “The Greenhouse” and will stream on Netflix in 2017.
Israel’s version of the show has been running for three seasons and has won the Israeli Academy of Film and Television’s award for Best Kids’ & Youth Drama.
*
Snowden-leaked document shows U.S. and U.K. have spied on Israeli drones
(JNS.org) U.S. and British intelligence services hacked Israeli drones and monitored their activity as part of a classified program code-named “Anarchist,” the online publication The Intercept reported, citing documents leaked by whistleblower Edward Snowden.
The U.K.’s Government Communication Headquarters (GCHQ) and America’s National Security Agency (NSA) spied on the drones from Cyprus to collect information about Israeli military operations in Gaza and potential strikes on Iran. They also monitored Israeli exports of drone technology worldwide.
GCHQ and NSA collected images from the drones in 2009 and 2010 through “Anarchist,” a program operated from a high Royal Air Force military post located near Mount Olympus in the Troodos Mountains of Cyprus.
“This access is indispensable for maintaining an understanding of Israeli military training and operations and thus an insight to possible future developments in the region,” said a GCHQ report leaked by Snowden.
“We are not surprised, we know that the Americans are spying on the whole world, including their ‘friends.’ That is disappointing, because for decades we have not spied, collected intelligence or attempted to crack the encryption of the United States,” Israeli National Infrastructure Minister Yuval Steinitz told Army Radio on Friday.
*
Nuclear Test Ban Treaty head: Iran and Israel ‘closest’ to ratifying 1996 accord
(JNS.org) Lassina Zerbo, the head of the U.N.-adopted Comprehensive Nuclear Test Ban Treaty (CTBT) representing 196 countries—of which 183 have signed the accord and 164 have ratified it—said that among the eight countries with nuclear power reactors or research reactors that have not ratified the treaty, Israel and Iran are “the closest” to doing so.
Israel and Iran signed the treaty when it was adopted by the U.N. General Assembly in 1996, but have yet to ratify it. (Ratification would consist of the treaty’s approval by those countries’ legislatures, making the accord legally binding.) The treaty cannot go into full effect unless the additional eight countries possessing nuclear capabilities ratify it. In addition to Israel and Iran, the U.S. has yet to ratify the treaty, along with China, Egypt, India, Pakistan, and North Korea.
Zerbo, who spoke at a conference marking the treaty’s 20th anniversary, said he hopes to visit both Iran and Israel because “I think that they’re the ones who can unlock what is stopping the CTBT from moving.”
Regarding last summer’s nuclear deal between Iran and P5+1 nations, he said the signing of the treaty by Iran, along with the nuclear deal, would mean that “the biggest threat for Israel is gone and over.”
*
Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.