Pope Francis will reportedly visit Israel in May
(JNS.org) Pope Francis will make his first visit to Israel as pontiff from May 25-26, CNN reported Nov. 28, citing an unnamed senior Israeli source.
When Israeli Knesset Speaker Yuli Edelstein urged him to visit Israel during an October meeting at the Vatican, Pope Francis replied, “I’ll come! I’ll come!” In April, the pontiff had also accepted an invitation to visit Israel from President Shimon Peres.
Pope Francis has made Jewish-Christian relations a priority, continuing the legacy of his predecessors. On Nov. 26, he released his widely anticipated first Apostolic Exhortation, which included a strong reaffirmation of dialogue with the Jewish people and an expression of regret for past anti-Semitism.
“We [the Catholic Church] hold the Jewish people in special regard because their covenant with God has never been revoked,” Pope Francis wrote in the document.
ADL makes conflicting statements on existence of report on anti-Israel texts in Newton, Mass.
(JNS.org) Anti-Defamation League (ADL) officials made conflicting statements on the existence of a report by the organization about allegations of anti-Israel teaching materials in the public school curriculum of Newton, Mass.
Americans for Peace and Tolerance (APT) recently took out an advertisement in Boston-area newspapers that highlighted research by concerned parents and students on the presence of anti-Israel texts in Newton schools. The texts mentioned in the ad include “The Arab World Studies Notebook,” which claims that Israeli soldiers murdered hundreds of Palestinian nurses in Israeli prisons; “A Muslim Primer,” which claims that astronaut Neil Armstrong converted to Islam; “Flashpoints: Guide to World History,” which asserts that Tel Aviv, not Jerusalem, is the capital of Israel, and that Jerusalem is the capital of “Palestine”; and other materials.
Leaders from the ADL, the Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC), and Combined Jewish Philanthropies (Boston’s Jewish federation) said in a Nov. 6 statement that “based on a careful review of the materials at issue by ADL and JCRC, there is substantial reason to believe that the allegations made in the [APT] ad are without merit.” The ADL, however, is refusing to make its findings on the teaching materials public, The Jewish Advocate of Boston reported in its Nov. 29 edition.
Furthermore, ADL officials contradicted themselves on the existence of an ADL report on Newton schools. ADL New England Regional Director Robert Trestan told The Jewish Advocate that a report of the ADL’s investigation does not exist, while ADL New England Region Board Chair Jeffrey Robbins said, “It’s an internal report. People do this stuff internally all the time. … It involves all kinds of proprietary research.”
Chinese foreign minister to visit Israel in December
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi will visit Israel in December and will meet with Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu as well as other senior government officials.
During the visit, scheduled for Dec. 17, the Israeli officials and Wang will discuss the interim agreement signed with Iran in Geneva, as Israel tries to weigh in on the final agreement world powers are trying to formulate with the Islamic Republic.
Two-year-old Israeli girl injured in Jerusalem stoning attack
(JNS.org) Two-year-old Israeli girl Avigail Magen suffered a moderate head wound on Thursday after her mother’s car was stoned as it entered the Armon Hanatziv neighborhood in Jerusalem. Magen’s mother and her two brothers were unharmed.
Security forces arrested four Arab residents of the village of Sur Baher in eastern Jerusalem in connection to the case. The police believe that the four suspects, ages 15 to 20, are part of a terror cell that has been operating in the city.
“Over the past few months we have been seeing an increase in violence by Palestinians in several neighborhoods in Jerusalem, especially in the form of rock and Molotov cocktail attacks,” a senior police officer told Israel Hayom on Thursday.
Tel Aviv urged to cancel Nakba film festival
(JNS.org) Habayit Hayehudi faction chairwoman Member of Knesset Ayelet Shaked implored Tel Aviv Mayor Ron Huldai on Thursday to cancel a film festival focusing on the Nakba, the Arabic term meaning “catastrophe” that Palestinians and Israeli Arabs use to describe the creation of the Palestinian refugee problem during Israel’s War of Independence.
“I was shocked to discover that Tel Aviv Municipality was helping produce an anti-Zionist film festival at the Tel Aviv Cinematheque. A review of the event’s line-up clearly shows that the films represented at the festival are of an anti-Zionist nature,” said Shaked, Israel Hayom reported.
The festival, titled “48 mm—International Film Festival on Nakba and Return,” began on Thursday and runs through Saturday. Its stated purpose is to “show films dealing with the Palestinian Nakba and the return of refugees.”
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