New excavations shed light on Sobibor death camp
(JNS.org) A recent excavation has provided a silent testimony to the mass killing of about 250,000 Jews at the Nazis’ Sobibor death camp in Poland, 70 years after the perpetrators tried to cover their tracks by razing the site to its core and planting what was to become a thick forest. Their decision was prompted by a prisoners’ revolt.
Archeologists Yoram Haimi and Wojciech Mazurek, from Israel and Poland, respectively, recently discovered nine open-air cremation pits and a cabin that housed Jews who were used for slave labor. Some 1.6 meters (about 5 feet) below the floor, a man-made tunnel was unearthed. As it led toward the barbed wire surrounding the camp, the excavators believe it was used as an escape route.
In 2012, Israel Hayom reported that Haimi and his team had successfully uncovered the “road to heaven,” a cynical name Nazis used for the walkway thousands of naked Jews took to the gas chambers.
*
International Holocaust Remembrance Day marked by 54 Knesset members at Auschwitz
(JNS.org) The largest Israeli legislative delegation to date, numbering 54 Members of Knesset, marked International Holocaust Remembrance Day on Monday by holding a special ceremony at the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland.
All of the major factions of the Knesset were represented in the delegation, excluding Kadima, Hadash, and the Arab parties, according to Israel Hayom. Participants included MK Issawi Frej (Meretz), who is Muslim, and MK Hamad Amar (Yisrael Beiteinu), who is Druze. The Israeli delegation also included 24 Holocaust survivors.
*
Abbas aide: Palestinians should resume armed resistance
(JNS.org) Senior Fatah official Tawfiq Tirawi, who serves as Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas’s security adviser, said Sunday that the Palestinians should embark on a violent uprising in the West Bank and resume their “armed resistance” against Israel.
“As things stand, we won’t have a Palestinian state in the West Bank and Gaza Strip even 20 years from now. Therefore, we should consider resuming the path of armed resistance. Maybe that will bring about change,” Tirawi told the Lebanese news channel Al-Mayadeen, according to Israel Hayom.
Tirawi, the PA’s former intelligence chief, stressed that the Palestinians “must reject” the outline for a peace deal currently promoted by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.
*
Scarlett Johansson defends deal with Israel’s SodaStream
(JNS.org) Jewish-American actress Scarlett Johansson has come under fire from human rights groups for serving as spokesperson for Israeli carbonated beverage company SodaStream.
Oxfam International, a human rights group that Johansson is involved with, took issue with her deal due to its opposition to “all trade from Israeli settlements.”
SodaStream has long been the target of pro-Palestinian groups for operating a factory in Ma’ale Adumim, which is across the Green Line east of Jerusalem. But at the factory, SodaStream employees many Palestinian workers and includes an on-site mosque. Also, the city is expected to be incorporated into Israel in any peace deal with the Palestinians.
“I remain a supporter of economic cooperation and social interaction between a democratic Israel and Palestine,” Johansson said in a statement. “SodaStream is a company that is not only committed to the environment but to building a bridge to peace between Israel and Palestine, supporting neighbors working alongside each other, receiving equal pay, equal benefits and equal rights.”
Johannson is set to appear in SodaStream’s upcoming $4 million Super Bowl ad.
*
Lockheed Martin announces deal to develop Israeli technology
(JNS.org) American defense giant Lockheed Martin is teaming up with the EMC Corporation to jointly invest in developing Israeli’s booming technology industry.
“Our goal is to foster applied research and continued growth in Israel’s technology sector,” said Lockheed Martin executive John Evans. “We recognize evolving global needs, as well as the wealth of innovation taking place within Israel and its universities.”
Last Fall, EMC Corp. signed a deal with the Israeli government to establish a technology center in the southern city of Beersheva.
Under their new deal, Lockheed Martin and EMC intend to work together to jointly develop partnerships with Israeli industry, government and academic institutions to focus on areas such as cloud computing, data analytics, and cyber technologies.
*
CAMERA billboard near NY Times office criticizes paper for biased reporting
(JNS.org) A new billboard adjacent to the New York Times office in midtown Manhattan calls out the newspaper for what a media watchdog group says is anti-Israel bias in its reporting.
The billboard, an initiative of the Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA), states: “Would a great newspaper slant the news against Israel? The New York Times does.” The billboard accuses the newspaper of “misrepresenting facts,” “omitting key information,” and “skewing headlines and photos.”
“The public should be very skeptical about relying on the Times. Our advice is to go elsewhere for solid news,” CAMERA Executive Director Andrea Levin said.
Last November, the Times admitted it made “a regrettable choice” by featuring a photo of relatives of Hussein Jawadra, the Palestinian terrorist indicted for killing 19-year-old Israeli soldier Eden Atias, in its coverage of that murder.
*
White House appoints first special envoy for Holocaust survivor services
(JNS.org) The White House on Friday announced the appointment of Aviva Sufian as the first Department of Health and Human Services’ (HHS) Special Envoy for U.S. Holocaust Survivor Services.
Sufian “will focus on those [Holocaust] survivors currently living in poverty, as well as those who may not be receiving services for which they are currently eligible,” according to the White House.
She will also “coordinate with colleagues at HHS and across the Federal government to advance programs that help Holocaust survivors” and “collaborate with nonprofit organizations and the private sector to raise awareness about the needs of this vulnerable population and explore public-private partnerships that could provide additional support,” the White House said.
Currently the director of regional operations for the HHS Administration for Community Living, Sufian previously served as senior advisor at the Social Security Administration.
*
Upcoming Fox TV series ‘Tyrant’ to be partially filmed in Israel
(JNS.org) The upcoming Fox television network series “Tyrant,” which will air on the FX cable network this summer, is slated to be partially filmed in the Israeli city of Kfar Saba.
“Tyrant” was created by Israeli filmmaker Gideon Raff—who also created the Israeli TV drama “Prisoners of War” and its American counterpart “Homeland”—and is produced by Howard Gordon, who also worked on “Homeland” and the Fox counter-terrorism drama “24.”
According to the show’s creator, “Tyrant” will be loosely based on events in the Arab world, especially Syria, where President Bashar al-Assad went from training in England to be an eye doctor to becoming a mass killer.
“How you go from being that to being hailed a mass killer, that journey was really interesting to me,” Raff told Indiewire.com.
*
Israeli President Shimon Peres receives special award at Davos
(JNS.org) Israeli President Shimon Peres received the “Spirit of Davos” award at a special plenary session during the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland.
Upon receiving the award, Peres was praised by WEF Founder Klaus Schwab for his “vision, soul, values, heart, and his compassion, which he has shown again and again.”
During a question-and-answer session that followed, Peres called himself a “dissatisfied optimist” and said he believes that hostilities between Israel and Iran won’t go on forever.
“For us, Iran is not an enemy. We don’t want to fight. We are not historically hostile,” Peres said.
*
Negotiators discuss limited Israeli withdrawal from West Bank
(JNS.org) Israeli and Palestinian negotiators in the U.S.-brokered peace talks are discussing a limited series of Israeli withdrawals from the West Bank, dependent on the Palestinians maintaining security in the area, the London-based daily al-Hayat reported.
“There is talk of security arrangements and standards for these arrangements, which will last for many years, and these standards are subject to the so-called improved Palestinian security performance, which will govern by Israel in the end,” said Yasser Abed Rabbo, a top Palestinian official.
Meanwhile, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry, speaking Friday at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, said that if the Israeli-Palestinian negotiations fail, “for Israel, the demographic dynamic will make it impossible to preserve its future as a democratic Jewish state.”
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org