Knesset member blasts Obama for not inviting Ariel students to speech
(JNS.org) In a letter sent to the U.S. Embassy in Tel Aviv, Member of Knesset Yoni Chetboun of the Habayit Hayehudi party criticized U.S. President Barack Obama for not inviting students from Ariel University of Samaria to his speech at the International Convention Center in Jerusalem next week, Israel Hayom reported.
Chetboun also questioned Obama’s decision to not deliver the speech at the Knesset, calling that move unprecedented for a visiting foreign leader.
“Next week, Obama will deliver his main speech in front of students, not the Knesset,” Chetboun said. “He claimed that he wanted to speak directly to Israeli society, saying this was not a political visit.”
The White House and the U.S. State Department both did not immediately respond to requests for comment from JNS.org.
Ariel University was recognized last year as Israel’s eighth full-fledged state university and the first located on the other side of the Green Line, the 1949 armistice line that served as a de facto border before 1967. The Obama administration has been a consistent critic of Israel’s decisions to expand construction in Jewish communities situated beyond the Green Line.
“And I ask, is the decision to boycott Ariel not political?” Chetboun said. “On one hand, the president says his speech isn’t political, but on the other hand, he rejects and boycotts the students from Ariel.”
“I very much hope the boycott decision was made by the president’s advisers and not by the president himself,” he said.
Additionally, head of the Ariel University Student Union Shay Shahaf said of not receiving invitations to the speech, “We were pretty shocked about the discrimination and the way in which they are giving up on a university in Israel,” according to Yedioth Ahronoth.
MK Chetboun’s letter was addressed to U.S. Ambassador to Israel Dan Shapiro. Shapiro on Tuesday called Obama’s upcoming visit “historic.” On Wednesday, in a Hebrew language interview on with Israel’s Channel 10 that was cited by the Times of Israel, Shapiro said rumors of Obama disliking Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu are “incorrect” and that the two leaders “share common interests.”
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Jewish leaders call for further measures to protect Mount of Olives cemetery
(JNS.org) Jewish leaders this week asked Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to take further steps to secure Jerusalem’s ancient Mount of Olives (“Har Hazeitim” in Hebrew) cemetery, whose grounds and visitors have been the target of Arab vandalism and attacks by Arabs.
The Jerusalem Development Authority has already installed security cameras and established a permanent police presence at the cemetery, home to 150,000 graves and a number of landmarks for Jews, Christians and Muslims. The cemetery has been in use for 3,000 years.
Leaders of Jewish groups including the Rabbinical Council of America, the National Council of Young Israel, Agudath Israel of America, the Orthodox Union, and the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations wrote a letter to Netanyahu commending the prime minister “for the great strides made by his government to secure and protect the ancient Jewish cemetery—which has increasingly come under attack in recent years with continuous violence against visitors, rampant grave desecrations, dumping of refuse and gross defilement of the cemetery by local Arab youths,” the International Committee for the Preservation of Har Hazeitim (ICPHH) said in a press release.
The ICPHH, however, is asking for additional measures such as the deployment of more police and Netanyahu’s support of Knesset legislation “which includes significant punishment for minors committing cemetery-related offences as well as mandating stiff punishment to address attacks carried out in cemetery perimeter areas, which are directed at visitors to intimidate and/or cause direct bodily harm,” according to the press release.
Conference of Presidents Executive Vice Chairman Malcolm Hoenlein, who personally delivered the ICPHH letter to Netanyahu, told The Jerusalem Post that he believes the prime minister “understands the importance of the issues surrounding Har Hazeitim and the significance of the sensitivities involved concerning the historic site and for the unity of Jerusalem.”
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Five Iranian Christians set to begin trial amid human rights crackdown
(JNS.org) Five Iranian Christian converts who were arrested last year are scheduled to begin trial in Iran’s Revolutionary Court this week.
The five Christians, who belonged to Iran’s growing underground house church movement, were arrested by Iranian authorities at a prayer session last October. They will be tried on charges of disturbing public order, evangelizing, threatening national security and engaging in Internet activity that threatens the government, according to Christian Solidarity Worldwide (CSW), a religious persecution watchdog group, Fox News reported.
“There has been a noticeable increase in the harassment, arrests, trials and imprisonments of converts to Christianity, particularly since the beginning of 2012,” CSW spokesperson Kiri Kankhwende told Fox News.
“Any movement that differs from or offers an alternative to orthodox Shia Islam, and any persons who chooses to follow an alternative belief system, are interpreted as a challenge to the very state itself,” Kankhwende said.
Iranian authorities have also recently arrested two other Christian converts, Pastor Youcef Nadarkhani and Iranian-American Pastor Saeed Abedini. Currently, Abedini is serving an eight-year sentence in Iran’s notoriously brutal Evin prison.
The crackdown against the Christian converts parallels the deteriorating human rights situation in Iran.
A United Nations report released on Tuesday said that Iran has cracked on down hundreds of journalists, human rights activists and lawyers in an attempt to stifle dissent ahead of its presidential election in June.
“The human rights situation in Iran has been worsening, is continuing to worsen,” UN investigator Ahmed Shaheed told the New York Times.
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Catholic grandson of Holocaust survivors to run again for Venezuelan presidency
(JNS.org) Henrique Capriles (Radonski), the Venezuelan opposition leader who lost to Hugo Chavez in the country’s election last year, will run again for president in the wake of Chavez’s death from cancer last week. Capriles is Catholic, but he is also the grandson of Jewish survivors of the Treblinka concentration camp. He faced anti-Semitic taunts during his previous campaign against Chavez.
Capriles, who is part of the conservative Primero Justicia (First Justice) party, will run against Chavez’s handpicked successor, Nicolas Maduro. Election day is April 14. If he wins, Capriles wants to reduce Venezuela’s relations with governments he considers controversial, such as Iran, and to improve his country’s relations with the U.S.
“This election is not going to be about Capriles versus Maduro, it’ll be Capriles against Chavez’s ghost,” said a Western diplomat in Caracas, according to Reuters.
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Obama to visit Church of the Nativity
(JNS.org) U.S. President Barack Obama plans to visit Bethlehem’s Church of the Nativity during his visit to the Middle East next week. The church is widely known for being the site where Christians believe Jesus was born.
Palestinian Authority (PA) leaders confirmed that Obama would visit the church—which is under the auspices of the PA—during his three-day visit to Israel and the Palestinian territories, which begins on March 20, according to AFP.
While in Israel, Obama is also expected to visit the Israel Museum, the Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum and the Shrine of the Book. In addition to meeting with Israeli President Shimon Peres and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, Obama will be shown an Iron Dome missile defense system installation, Israel National News reported.
Obama is scheduled to speak at Israel’s Binyanei Ha’uma (Israel Convention Center), visit the U.S. Consulate in Jerusalem, and lay a wreath on the tombs of Zionist leader Theodor Herzl and former Israeli Prime Minister Yitzchak Rabin on Mount Herzl. He is also expected to meet with opposition representative and Labor party leader Shelly Yachimovich.
The visit to the Church of the Nativity will take place toward the end of Obama’s visit. In the summer of 2012, the church was added to the UN Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization’s (UNESCO) list of sites in danger. UNESCO cited water damage and other necessary repairs to recognize it the church as a “World Heritage Site.”
Palestinians interpreted the church’s new designation as a confirmation of their right to the land, with Hanan Ashrawi, a leader of the Palestine Liberation Organization, issuing a statement calling the decision “a welcome recognition by the international community of our historical and cultural rights in this land.” But the Israeli Prime Minister’s Office said at the time, “The world needs to remember that the Church of the Nativity, which is sacred to Christianity, has been desecrated in the past by Palestinian terrorists.”
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Preceding provided by JNS.org