Middle East Roundup: May 3, 2016

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Islamic State attack on synagogue foiled in Tunisia

(JNS.org) A Tunisian newspaper has revealed that the Islamic State plotted to attack a synagogue in the country, but the plan was foiled.

The local Al Chourouk newspaper reported on Monday that the terror group meant to target a synagogue in the coastal town of El Marsa, east of Tunis, but the Islamic State members who planned the attack were arrested before they were able to carry out the attack.

A man informed the authorities that an Islamic State cell was planning to murder the synagogue’s caretaker and steal gold the terrorists believed to be present on its premises. He also reported the men wanted to murder local security officials and politicians, not making clear whether these victims were chosen for the ties with the Jewish community, Israel Hayom reported.

There are about 1,000 Jews still living in Tunisia today. Meanwhile about 7,000 Tunisians have reportedly joined the Islamic State in the past few years. In May 2015, the Israeli government warned Israelis not to travel to Tunisia due to a “high-level, concrete threat” that Israelis might be targeted by terrorists.

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U.K.s Labour Party anti-Semitism scandal widens with 50 suspensions

(JNS.org) The scandal surrounding anti-Semitism in the United Kingdom’s Labour Party deepened with additional suspensions of party members for making anti-Semitic posts on social media, only some of which have been revealed publicly thus far.

According to the Telegraph, Labour has secretly suspended 50 of its members for anti-Semitic and racist comments over the past two months. Of these, only about 20 suspensions occurred within the last two weeks.

Among the most recent suspensions on Monday, Nottingham City Councilor Ilyas Aziz was found to have promoted the anti-Semitic blood libel by posting that Jews should “stop drinking Gaza blood,” while Blackburn with Darwen City Councilor Salim Mulla re-posted a message by previously suspended Labour lawmaker MP Naz Shah about the “relocation” of Israel to the U.S.

Mulla also alluded in August of 2015 on Facebook that Israel was to blame for the terror attacks in Paris in November, as well as the killing of Japanese prisoners captured by the Islamic State.

“So we have France voting to give Palestine statehood, and all of a sudden they get attacked by ISIS. Then we have Japan giving Palestine $100M dollars to reconstruct Gaza and suddenly ISIS takes two Japanese hostages,” he posted.

Among several posts, according to The Independent, Aziz also wrote that “Jews and Muslims lived together in the Middle East, in peace pre 1948. Perhaps it would have been wiser to create Israel in America it’s big enough. They could relocate even now.”

In addition, later on Monday Burnley Councilor Shah Hussain was also suspended for telling an Israeli soccer player on Twitter that Israel was treating Palestinians like Adolf Hitler treated the Jews.

The latest suspensions follow last week’s suspensions of Naz Shah for the revelation of how she suggested in a 2014 Facebook post that Israel should be relocated to the U.S. as a solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, as well as Labour member and former London mayor Ken Livingstone, who told BBC Radio that Hitler initially “was supporting Zionism before he went mad and ended up killing 6 million Jews.”

Since the suspensions of Shah and Livingstone, Labour Party leader Jeremy Corbyn has launched an independent review of anti-Semitism and racism within his party. But Corbyn himself has come under fire in the past for calling the Hamas and Hezbollah terror groups “friends,” and for his connections to a Holocaust denier.

The anti-Semitism scandal comes just days before an election for the mayor of London on Thursday. The winner will replace outgoing Mayor Boris Johnson.

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Israel to reopen main crossing point into Gaza Strip for goods

(JNS.org) Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon on Monday announced the reopening of Israel’s Erez border crossing into the Gaza Strip for trucks and goods.

“It is in our interests that a significant amount of truckloads of food continues to go to Gaza,” a spokesman for Ya’alon said in a statement, AFP reported.

“It is our interest that Gazans live in dignity. Both from a humanitarian point of view and because this is a way to protect the peace, in addition to existing security deterrents,” he said.

Despite the announcement, Ya’alon did not give an immediate timetable for the reopening of the Erez crossing, saying that this “will not happen tomorrow or the day after.”

Currently, the Kerem Shalom crossing in southern Gaza in the only crossing for goods between Israel and Gaza, which is controlled by the Palestinian terror group Hamas. But according to Ya’alon, the crossing is facing congestion issues.

“At least half of what currently goes to Kerem Shalom” will be redirected to Erez, Ya’alon said.

The Erez border crossing was closed to the passage of goods in 2008 and currently only serves pedestrians.

Israel has maintained tight control over Gaza’s air, sea, and land crossings since Hamas took control there in 2006, due to the terror group’s use of materials such as cement and metal to build tunnels and rockets to attack Israel.

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Israeli man wounded in stabbing attack in Jerusalems Old City

(JNS.org) A 60-year-old Jewish man was moderately wounded in a stabbing attack outside of the Lion’s Gate entrance to the Old City of Jerusalem on Monday night.

Israeli police said that the victim was stabbed in the upper torso by the terrorist, who then fled the scene.

“The man was treated on site by Magen David Adom paramedics and rushed to Shaare Zedek Medical Center in light-to-moderate condition,” said Israel Police spokesman Micky Rosenfeld shortly after the attack, the Jerusalem Post reported.

“The knife was found at the scene and police units are searching for the suspect,” he said.

Despite Monday’s attack, there has been a significant decrease in Palestinian stabbing, shooting, and car-ramming attacks in Jerusalem during the past few months, as opposed to late 2015 and the start of 2016.

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German official denies report on possible deterioration of support for Israel

(JNS.org) A German government official denied a report by the Der Spiegel magazine claiming that Germany might stop supporting Israel unconditionally due to Chancellor Angela Merkel’s unhappiness with the Israeli policy on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict under Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

On Friday, Der Spiegel reported that senior politicians in the German government’s current ruling parties, the Social Democratic Party and the joint Christian Democratic Union/Christian Social Union, said Germany is worried that Netanyahu is “instrumentalizing” Germany’s friendship.

“Israel’s current policies are not contributing to the country remaining Jewish and democratic,” said Norbert Röttgen, a member of Merkel’s Christian Democratic Union. “We must express this concern more clearly to Israel.”

Among several examples of allegedly chilled relations between Germany and Israel, Merkel is quoted in the magazine article as saying during Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s recent visit to Berlin that she understands why “Abbas continually seeks out the [United Nations] Security Council” for resolutions relating to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict.

A German official told Reuters on Sunday, however, that “the guidelines of German Middle East policy have not changed.”

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Two babies born on Holocaust refugee ship meet 76 years later

(JNS.org) Seventy-six years later, a man born on a Haganah refugee ship carrying 728 Jewish refugees fleeing from Nazi-occupied areas of Europe finally met the second baby born on the ship.

Yehuda Oestreicher has always known that he was born 76 years ago aboard the Hilda. His mother was pregnant when she boarded the ship, but hid her belly underneath a coat out of fear she would not be allowed on board if her secret was discovered. It took months before the ship was able to sail, and Oestreicher was born three months later in the captain’s cabin. Over the years, he heard from his parents and from others that he was not the only baby born on the ship.

“They told me that a girl was born two weeks before me, and they decided to name her Hilda, after the ship,” Oestreicher said. “This baby girl was always a mystery to me and I have wanted to find her for years, but I didn’t know how.”

An Israel Hayom article published for Holocaust Remembrance Day last year led to hundreds of calls from people asking to review their recognition as Holocaust survivors, including from Oestreicher, who lives in the Israeli moshav of Herev Le’et, and from a woman named Bracha Ronen from Kibbutz Lahav.

“When Yehuda came to us and shared the story of his birth on the ship Hilda, I was sure that I had already heard the story in the first person,” said attorney Noa Shine of the Aviv for Holocaust Survivors organization. “But then I realized that this was actually because a woman had approached the organization over the same issue. I immediately put the puzzle together, and I understood that they had to meet each other.”

That finally happened on Sunday, when Oestreicher and Ronen met for the first time.

“My mother turned the captain’s cabin into a delivery room, and then Yehuda’s mother continued the tradition,” Ronen said. “The captain made an improvised birth certificate for my parents, and that is where it is written that my middle name is Hilda. That’s why Yehuda knows me [by that name].”

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