Israeli lawmakers seek to institute limited public transportation on Shabbat
(JNS.org) Members of Knesset Yael German, Karin Elharrar, and Yoel Razvozov (all from the Yesh Atid party) intend to put forth a bill that would allow local authorities to operate public transportation on Saturday in Israel. The bill would permit minibuses to run within each locality and on intercity roads.
According to the bill, making public transportation available on Shabbat is designed to give some mobility to sectors that cannot drive or afford to drive, such as the elderly or youths. The bill is set to be presented to Israel’s Ministerial Committee on Legislation next Sunday.
The bill stipulates that public transportation on Saturday would include only one or two bus lines that go to and from city centers would run, and the buses would not enter religious neighborhoods or pass synagogues.
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Netanyahu: Arab Peace Initiative could be relevant with changes on borders, refugees
(JNS.org) At a meeting of Likud party ministers on Monday, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu faced questions regarding the Arab Peace Initiative of 2002, two weeks after saying the initiative included some “positive elements” and that Israel is “willing to negotiate with Arab states’ revisions to that initiative so that it reflects the dramatic changes in the region since 2002.”
On Monday, one Likud minister asked Netanyahu what he would do if Arab states were not willing to revise the initiative. “If the Arab states grasp the fact that they need to revise the Arab League proposal according to the changes Israel demands, then we can talk,” Netanyahu replied. “But if they bring the proposal from 2002 and define it as ‘take it or leave it,’ we’ll choose to leave it.”
In response to another question about the Arab Peace Initiative, Netanyahu said the initiative provided a “good foundation, but it clearly must be updated due to the far-reaching changes that have taken place in our region in recent years.”
The prime minister went on to say the initiative could be relevant with the removal of its demands for an Israeli return to the 1967 borders and the granting of a right of return to Palestinian refugees.
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U.N. human rights commissioner accuses Israel of ‘collective punishment’ of Palestinians
(JNS.org) United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights Zeid Ra’ad Al Hussein has accused Israel of engaging in “collective punishment” against the Palestinians following Wednesday’s terror attack in Tel Aviv that killed four Israelis.
“We are also deeply concerned at the response of the Israeli authorities, which includes measures that may amount to prohibited collective punishment,” Al Hussein said in a statement issued by his spokesperson at a press conference in Geneva on Friday.
In response to the terror attack carried out by two Palestinian terrorists from the city of Yatta, Israeli authorities sealed off the West Bank and Gaza Strip until Sunday night. Israel also revoked travel permits for about 83,000 Palestinians.
Calling the Palestinian terrorists “alleged attackers,” Al Hussein said Israel’s actions “will only increase the sense of injustice and frustration felt by Palestinians in this very tense time.”
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Belfast memorial dedicated to Christian Zionist ‘godfather’ of IDF is vandalized
(JNS.org) A mural dedicated to Lt.-Col. John Henry Patterson, an Irish Christian Zionist who played a pivotal role in the future formation of the Israel Defense Forces, was vandalized in Belfast, Northern Ireland, in an attack that is being described by police as a hate crime.
“Police said that at around 1:30 a.m. on Thursday, two containers were set alight close to the memorial to Lieutenant-Colonel John Henry Patterson at the junction of Beverley Street and Northumberland Street, off the Shankill Road,” the Irish News reported.
Born in 1867, Patterson came to the region known as Palestine during World War I after serving as a colonial officer in eastern Africa, where he became famous for killing two giant man-eating lions. Patterson eventually commanded the Jewish Legion—the first Jewish force on the field of battle in the area in nearly 2,000 years—in campaigns in Gallipoli and Palestine.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s father was close friends with Patterson when the two worked together to advocate for Israeli statehood. Netanyahu’s brother Yonatan, who was killed in Operation Entebbe in Uganda in 1976, was named in Patterson’s honor.
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In twist on Charlie Hebdo, French lawmakers tweet ‘Je suis Tel Aviv’
(JNS.org) French lawmakers and others around the world are expressing their solidarity with Israel following last week’s fatal terrorist shooting in Tel Aviv by using the term “Je suis Tel Aviv” in their social media posts.
The slogan is a version of the “Je suis Charlie” (“I am Charlie”) phrase used after the January 2015 Islamist shooting at the office of the Paris-based satirical magazine Charlie Hebdo.
Among the first to tweet “Je suis Tel Aviv” was former French prime minister Alain Juppe, and others such as French lawmakers Jean-Francois Cope and Nathalie Kosciusko-Morizet have followed suit.
“From Paris to Tel Aviv, from Brussels to Jerusalem, we are seeing the same terrorist attacks in the name of global jihad, which is waging a war against our civilization,” said French-Jewish Member of Parliament Meyer Habib, Israel Hayom reported.
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Smithsonian Institution head says boycott of Israel won’t solve conflict
(JNS.org) The head of the Smithsonian Institution, America’s national research museums network, said that academic boycotts of Israel go “against the most basic principle of academia, period.”
In an interview with the Jerusalem Post, Smithsonian Secretary David Skorton, who was visiting Israel this week to receive an honorary doctorate from the Technion–Israel Institute of Technology, said that “many people who have not visited Israel don’t really understand the multi-dimensional nature of Israeli society.”
“The only understanding is gained from reading press coverage from unfortunate circumstances: Palestinians attacking Jews, the IDF attacking Palestinians, and so on—as if that is the whole story of Israel. As people understand more about Israeli society, they understand that there is a broad multiplicity of viewpoints,” he said.
“My personal belief is that you don’t get better by failing to talk to each other,” added Skorton.
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Tel Aviv mayor sparks outrage by linking terror attack to ‘occupation’
(JNS.org) Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai sparked outrage through his response to last week’s fatal terrorist shooting at the Sarona market, in which he implied that he understands the terrorists’ motives.
“We might be the only country where one people is under occupation by another without having civil rights, and the leaders say it’s so we can reach a [peace] deal,” Huldai told Army Radio.
“I know the reality and I know that courageous leaders need to aspire to do things, not just talk. The fact that we accept this suffering isn’t leading to any change in our understanding about what we need to do,” Huldai said.
The mayor added that “you can’t hold people to a reality in which you conquer them and think that they’ll reach the conclusion that everything is all right and they can go on living that way.”
In response to Huldai’s remarks, Israeli Science, Technology and Space Minister Ofir Akunis (Likud) said, “We don’t need Huldai to lecture us on morality and his desire for peace or the peace process….The things he said, which could be interpreted as meaning there is a need for a mega-terrorist attack to start the peace process, are nonsense that should be condemned as harshly as possible.”
Member of Knesset Nava Boker (Likud) said that “the blood still isn’t dry from the terrorist attack, and Huldai is already rushing to profit politically and tie the attack to the ‘occupation.’”
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Growing Chinese interest in Israeli technology spurs investment summit
(JNS.org) Tel Aviv will host the “INNONATION: China-Israel Investment Summit” from Sept. 24-26, following the success of a similar summit held in January 2016 in Beijing.
The joint Israeli-Chinese conference is supported by both nations’ governments. It will be held at the David Intercontinental Hotel in Tel Aviv and will host more than 1,000 Chinese investors and strategic partners, as well as 500 Israeli high-tech companies and entrepreneurs from a variety of fields such as agriculture, clean technology, mobile and Web, smart cities, and medicine.
The INNONATION summit is a joint initiative of Israel’s Ministry of Economy and the Infinity Group, and has already secured the participation of more than 40 investors from Chinese investment funds, according to the Israeli business news outlet Globes.
“I expect that the vast majority of the Israeli venture capital funds which will raise capital in 2016 will include at least one Chinese investor,” said Ziva Eger, head of the Foreign Investments and Industrial Cooperation Authority at the Israeli Ministry of Economy.
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