Norway’s FM angered over PA terrorism pay
(JNS.org) Norwegian Foreign Minister Espen Barth Eide expressed anger at the Palestinian Authority during his visit to Israel on Wednesday, following the discovery that the PA was using Norwegian and British aid money to pay the salaries of convicted Palestinian terrorists serving time in Israeli jails, Israel Hayom reported.
Eide was in Israel on Wednesday for a one-day trip to Jerusalem to meet with Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, as well as International Relations Minister Yuval Steinitz and Justice Minister Tzipi Livni, who will head the Israel negotiating team with Palestinians if peace talks are restarted.
Last month, the Norwegian Parliamentary Committee on Scrutiny and Constitutional Affairs decided to probe the Norwegian Foreign Ministry after Israel-based media watchdog Palestinian Media Watch revealed that the PA might have been lying to Norway about how the country’s extensive financial aid was being used.
The Norwegian Foreign Ministry under then Foreign Minister Jonas Gahr Støre had denied that its money was being used to fund terrorists. Eide, who became foreign minister last September, told the Norwegian parliament’s investigative committee that the PA had told Norway its funds were “used to cover canteen expenses” for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli jails.
Eide said his ministry had received “new information” that conflicted with the PA’s claim that Norwegian funds were not being used to pay convicted terrorists’ salaries, and that the PA may have been misleading Norway.
Palestinian Authority Prime Minister Salam Fayyad recently told Eide recently that part of the funds were meant as social welfare payments to families whose principal provider was sitting in jail, denying that the funds were used to pay convicted terrorists’ salaries.
Eide told Fayyad that Norway found the funding of prisoners convicted of terrorism, along with the prospect that the PA may have misled Norway, to be “problematic.”
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France favors designating Hezbollah as terrorist organization
(JNS.org) Jewish leaders welcomed the recent designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization by the French government.
“We welcome the French government’s decision to support the designation of Hezbollah as a terrorist organization by the European Union. This follows the declaration by the Bulgarian government of Hezbollah’s responsibility for the attack in Burgas in July, 2012 and the conviction of a Hezbollah operative in Cyprus,” Richard Stone, chairman, and Malcolm Hoenlein, executive vice chairman, of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations said in a statement.
Last week, at a meeting with U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius said that the French government supports adding the armed wing of Hezbollah to the European Union’s list of terrorist organizations.
The designation by the French government could play a pivotal role in persuading the rest of the European Union to blacklist Hezbollah.
Dr. Magnus Norell, adjunct scholar at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy and Senior Policy Advisor at the European Foundation for Democracy (EFD) in Brussels, recently told JNS.org that the EU looks to France for guidance on Lebanese affairs.
“The French are well aware of the role Hezbollah plays in Lebanon… [French designation] would have wide repercussions in the EU as a whole,” Norell said. “On matters concerning the Levant, the EU tends to defer to France.”
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Stephen Hawking to visit Israel
(JNS.org) Stephen Hawking, the internationally renowned British theoretical physicist and popular science author, is scheduled to visit Israel this summer, the Jerusalem Post reported.
Hawking will travel to Israel to take part in the 5th annual Israeli Presidential Conference, titled “Facing Tomorrow.” The conference, which was inaugurated in 2008 by Nobel Prize Laureate and Israeli President Shimon Peres, gathers the world’s top leaders and intellectuals in Israel for discussions on everything from science and technology to religion and politics. Past attendees have included former U.S. Secretary of State Henry Kissinger, Google founder Sergei Brin, former Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev and Wikipedia founder Jimmy Wales.
Despite suffering from a debilitating form of the neurodegenerative disease ALS (Lou Gehrig’s disease) that has left him completely paralyzed, Hawking has become an international cultural icon for his groundbreaking work in theoretical physics and cosmology. He is also renowned as an author for books such as “A Brief History of Time,” which introduced millions of non-science readers to complicated issues in cosmology such as the Theory of General Relativity, the Big Bang and black holes.
This will be Hawking’s second trip to Israel. In 2006, at the invitation of the British embassy, Hawking toured the region, speaking with local scientists and academics.
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Palestinian group apologizes for ‘blood libel’ article
(JNS.org) The Palestinian Initiative for the Promotion of Global Dialogue and Democracy (MIFTAH) has apologized and removed an article from its website stating that the Jewish “blood libel” is true.
“Does Obama in fact know the relationship, for example, between ‘Passover’ and ‘Christian blood’..?!” the article stated, according to Israel National News. “Much of the chatter and gossip about historical Jewish blood rituals in Europe are real and not fake as they claim; the Jews used the blood of Christians in the Jewish Passover,” the article also said.
MIFTHA, which was founded by Palestinian Authority lawmaker Hanan Ashrawi, apologized for the publication of the article after initially refusing to do so, reported the Washington Free Beacon. Eventually, the organization stated, “It has become clear to us after investigating this incident that the article was accidentally and incorrectly published by a junior staff member.”
“The said staffer has been reprimanded and all our staff has been informed as to the disgusting and repulsive phenomena of blood libel or accusation, including its use against Jews.”
“Dr. Hanan Ashrawi, as founder, has nothing to do with the day to day management at MIFTAH and was no way involved in this incident,” the organization’s apology said.
According to the watchdog group NGO Monitor, MIFTHA has received funding from the governments of Italy, Ireland and Norway, and from the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization (UNESCO).
Hamas to enforce gender segregation in schools
(JNS.org) Hamas has approved a new law in Gaza that will ban men from teaching in girls’ schools and enforce gender segregation past the age of 9. The law, which was approved by Hamas’s Education Ministry on Monday, will go into effect for the next school year.
“We are a Muslim people. We do not need to make people Muslims, and we are doing what serves our people and their culture,” Waleed Mezher, the Hamas Education Ministry’s legal adviser, told Reuters.
Since most Hamas-run schools in Gaza are already gender segregated, the decision will affect Christian and private schools most significantly. Human rights activists voiced criticism regarding the new measure.
“Instead of hiding behind traditions, why don’t they say clearly they are Islamists and they want to Islamise the community,” said Zeinab Al-Ghoneimi, a Gaza activist for women’s rights.
Hamas, a terrorist organization that has ruled the Gaza Strip since a bloody coup against its Palestinian rival group Fatah in 2007, has increasingly implemented strict Islamic laws in the coastal enclave, including banning alcohol and placing restrictions on women.
Early last month, the Gaza Marathon was canceled by the United Nations Relief and Works Agency (UNRWA), an agency in charge of Palestinian refugee affairs in Gaza, after Hamas banned women from competing.
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Preceding provided by JNS.org