Palestinian village hangs large Swastika flag on electric line
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) The Israel Defense Forces Civil Administration on Monday ordered the Palestinian Electrical Company to remove a Swastika flag that had been hung on one of its electric wires in the Palestinian village of Beit Ummar.
A photograph of the Swastika flag was taken by the Tazpit News Agency, which brought it to the attention of the IDF. The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit confirmed that the flag had been hung on an electrical line in the village and will be removed.
Beit Ummar is situated on the road between Gush Etzion and Hebron in Judea and Samaria. Palestinians clashed with IDF soldiers in Beit Ummar over the weekend, with eight Palestinians injured in the incident, the Palestinian Maan News Agency reported.
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Syria reportedly aims half-ton warhead missiles at Tel Aviv
(JNS.org) Syria has deployed advanced missiles carrying 500-kilogram (1,100-pound) warheads with attack coordinates set for Tel Aviv, The Sunday Times reported.
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, responding to the report, told his cabinet on Sunday that Israel was prepared for any scenario, Israel Hayom reported.
“The Middle East is currently facing one of the most sensitive eras it has seen in decades, and at the center: the escalating shock waves in Syria,” Netanyahu said. “We are closely monitoring the developments and changes there, and we are prepared for any scenario.”
Israel is determined to “prevent, as much as possible, the transfer of advanced weapons into the hands of Hezbollah and terror organizations,” Netanyahu added.
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IDF not responsible for 2000 al-Dura shooting, government report finds
(JNS.org) An Israeli government review of the death of 12-year-old Muhammad al-Dura during the Al-Aqsa Intifada in 2000 has officially debunked a French television report suggesting he was killed by direct Israel Defense Forces fire, Israel Hayom reported.
The 36-page report, which was presented to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu on Sunday, further concluded that it was highly likely that the boy survived the incident unscathed and therefore may still be alive. The boy’s father, Jamal, urged an international inquest into the shooting.
The incident took place on Sept. 30, 2000—the early days of the Al-Aqsa Intifada—when Jamal al-Dura and his 12-year-old son Muhammad were filmed by a France 2 news crew as they were taking cover behind a concrete barrier after they were caught in a crossfire between Israeli soldiers and Palestinian police forces in Netzarim Junction, on the Gaza Strip’s main north-south highway.
France 2 reported that the boy was killed by direct fire from a nearby IDF post. The Israeli government review, however, examined the raw footage filmed by the France 2 crew, and found that it was edited to exclude a part at the end in which the boy—declared dead by the reporter on film merely a moment earlier—is clearly seen alive and moving.
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Jesus a ‘Palestinian forefather,’ PA publication says
(JNS.org) A recent op-ed in the Palestinian Authority’s official daily publication called Jesus a “virtuous patriotic Palestinian forefather” and claimed Easter is “not a holiday for Christian Palestinians only but a holiday for Palestinian nationalism, because Jesus, may he rest in peace, is a Canaanite Palestinian,” Palestinian Media Watch reported.
Christian tradition affirms that Jesus was born Jewish, but the May 6 op-ed in Al-Hayat Al-Jadida states Palestinians are Jesus’s descendants and “rose from the ashes, like the phoenix, from the ruins of the Nakba (the Palestinian term for the 1948 establishment of Israel) and the Naksa (the Palestinian term for Israel’s victory in the Six Day War).”
The resurrection of Jesus, which Christians celebrate on Easter, “reflects the Palestinian narrative, which struggles against the descendants of modern Zionist Judaism, in its new colonialist form, that conspires with the Western capitalists who claim to belong to Christianity,” the op-ed says.
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Toulouse shooting revisited by French police with arrest of new suspect
(JNS.org) French authorities have detained a 25-year-old on suspicion of helping the gunman who killed three Jewish children and a rabbi at a Jewish school in Toulouse in southern France in March 2012.
The man has not been named, but a formal investigation is working to determine whether he helped the gunman, Mohamed Merah, steal the scooter the gunman used during the Toulouse shooting.
Police have also kept Merah’s brother, Abdelkader, in custody since last March on suspicion of aiding the shooter. He denies involvement, according to Reuters.
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Canadian PM defends support of Israel, questions arming Syrian rebels
(JNS.org) Canadian Prime Minister Stephen Harper called Israel “the one stable, democratic ally in this part of the world” and expressed frustration with lack of current support for the Jewish state on a recent visit to New York City.. He also criticized the idea of arming Syrian rebels in an effort to help defeat the regime of Bashar al-Assad.
“There’s nothing more shortsighted in Western capitals in our time than the softening of support we’ve seen for Israel around the globe,” Harper said, according to the Associated Press. “We should not fool ourselves about what’s happening in Syria.” Since there is “brutality and extremism on both sides,” to “start talking about arming unnamed people whose objectives we don’t understand, I think, is extremely risky,” he said.
Harper’s words came just a week after a video of a Syrian rebel commander appeared online showing him cutting the body of a dead soldier and biting into his heart, Reuters reported. When asked to explain his actions, the rebel commander said the man’s phone contained video clips of him raping women, burning bodies and cutting off people’s limbs.
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In Gaza, everybody needs a little… smuggled KFC?
(JNS.org) A Palestinian smuggling company is now offering Gazans the taste of Colonel Sanders’s KFC secret recipe.
According to the Christian Science Monitor, the al-Yamama company in Gaza advertises its illegal smuggling service on Facebook. It receives about 10 orders a week for KFC meals, despite the lofty cost of $30 to cover the transportation and smuggling fees. The finger lickin’ chicken goes from the deep fryers in Al-Arish in the Sinai to Gaza and to Gaza doorsteps in about three hours.
“All you need to have any KFC product is a short phone call and a few hours; then you can enjoy the great taste of fried chickens,” Rafat Shororo, an accountant in Gaza, told the Christian Science Monitor.
Israel imposed the blockade on Gaza several years ago to prevent Hamas and other Gaza terror groups from obtaining rockets and other materials needed for weapons. Recently, however, Israel has eased its restrictions into Gaza, prompting smugglers to look for other means of income, such as fried chicken.
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Preceding news articles provided by JNS.org. Photo by Shneior Nachum Sochat/ Tazpit News Agency