Israeli Knesset passes bill banning BDS supporters from entering country
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Knesset Monday approved a controversial bill to deny visas and residency permits to people who support boycotting Israel. The new law, approved in a 46-28 vote, gives Israel’s interior minister the authority to decide on any exceptions to the rule.
The abstract to the bill, sponsored by Members of Knesset Bezalel Smotrich (Jewish Home) and Roey Folkman (Kulanu), states that “over the past few years, calls for boycotts against Israel have grown louder. It seems to have become a new battlefront against Israel and the state has yet to be able to duly counter it….This bill seeks to prevent private individuals or those representing companies, associations or organizations that support boycotting Israel from promoting their agenda on Israeli soil.”
Israel’s political opposition lambasted the bill as “vindictive” against those who refuse to align themselves with Israel’s policies.
*
Indian PM Modi to visit Israel in July, will reportedly skip Palestinian territories
(JNS.org) Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi will make a historic visit to Israel this summer, the first by a sitting Indian leader, and will reportedly not visit the Palestinian Authority (PA) leadership in Ramallah.
“Contrary to expectations that Modi would include Palestine in his itinerary too, like many ministers did in the past, he will be traveling only to Israel,” the Times of India reported, noting that the move underscores the “di-hyphenation” of India’s relations with Israel and the Palestinians.
The PA’s envoy to India, Adnan Abu Alhaija, said he was “shocked” by Modi’s decision to skip a Ramallah visit, but that PA President Mahmoud Abbas will likely visit India before Modi’s Israel trip.
Modi is expected to visit Israel on his return from the G20 summit in Hamburg, Germany, during the second week of July. The Indian government said it believes the standalone visit to Israel will further “underline the significance of India’s special ties with the Jewish nation.” The visit will mark 25 years of diplomatic relations between the two allies.
*
23 artists to visit Israel as part of regional bid to save Dead Sea
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Twenty-three artists from around the world are scheduled to visit Israel in mid-March to raise awareness for the efforts to save the shrinking Dead Sea.
The Dead Sea, the deepest hypersaline lake in the world, is shrinking at a rate of more than a meter (3.3 feet) per year.
The initiative is the brainchild of the Ornithological Center at the Society for Protection of Nature in Israel (SPNI), which partnered with the Netherlands-based Artists for Nature Foundation and the Tamar Regional Council in southern Israel to promote it.
Established in 1953, the SPNI is Israel’s leading environmental nonprofit organization.
According to the SPNI’s website, the Dead Sea venture also involves collaboration with Jordan and the Palestinian Authority. From March 16-27, the artists will paint portraits of the Dead Sea as well as local landscapes from both the Israeli and the Jordanian sides of the sea.
*
JCCs in New York, Wisconsin hit with latest bomb threats
(JNS.org) Jewish community centers (JCCs) in New York and Wisconsin received bomb threats Tuesday in the latest wave of threats targeting the American Jewish community.
The Louis S. Wolk JCC of Greater Rochester in Brighton, N.Y., was evacuated after an email alert went out to employees and members notifying them of the bomb threat. Around 75 people were in the building at the time. The threat against the Rochester-area JCC came just a week after headstones were overturned in a Jewish cemetery in that city.
Additionally, the Harry and Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center in Milwaukee, Wis., was forced to temporarily close after receiving an emailed bomb threat overnight. The same JCC has been targeted by two other bomb threats this year, both of which were phoned in.
*
Iranian attack vessels threaten US ship; Netanyahu and Trump speak on Iran
(JNS.org) Multiple Iranian Revolutionary Guard fast-attack vessels came close to a U.S. Navy ship in the Strait of Hormuz Saturday, forcing the ship to change direction, an American official said Monday.
The official told Reuters that Iranian boats came within 600 yards of the UNNS Invincible, a tracking ship. The American vessel attempted to contact the Iranian ships over radio, but there was no response, and the interaction was reportedly “unsafe and unprofessional.”
Meanwhile, President Donald Trump and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu spoke Monday about Iran’s nuclear ambitious and its regional aggressiveness, and “about the need to work together to deal with these dangers,” according to a readout from the Prime Minister’s Office.
*
Articles from JNS.org are sponsored on San Diego Jewish World by Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman.