Radical Islamic sheikh sentenced to eight months in jail for inciting violence
(JNS.org) Islamic Movement head Sheikh Raed Salah was sentenced to eight months in prison Tuesday, after the Jerusalem Magistrates’ Court found him guilty of inciting violence.
Salah was indicted following a speech he gave in a 2007 Friday prayer service held in the east Jerusalem neighborhood of Wadi Joz, during which he had urged the Muslim world to launch a “bloody intifada” against Israel and called on participants to become “shahids” (martyrs) for the Palestinian cause.
“The sentence reflects society’s disgust with such expressions,” Judge Cjana Miriam Lomp noted in her ruling, according to Israel Hayom.
The Jerusalem District Prosecutor’s Office said it is currently mulling whether to appeal the sentence, which it argued was too lenient. “Such incitement for violence has the ability to bring about tremendous damage. It is not protected by freedom of speech,” a source in the prosecution said.
*
Palestinian admits to Petach Tikva stabbing attack
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A Palestinian man who was illegally staying in Israel carried out last Sunday’s stabbing attack against an Israeli man in Petach Tikva, police said on Tuesday, as the case’s gag order was lifted.
Shin Bet agents helped police identify the suspect from among several undocumented Palestinians the Border Police and Israel Police had arrested shortly after the attack. During the investigation, 28-year-old Fadi Walid Ibrahim al-Huda, from Birzeit, admitted to stabbing an Israeli man in the stomach, and he re-enacted the attack for police.
The Shin Bet said that Huda is an active member of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). He has served prison time for actions against the Israel Defense Forces and conspiring to carry out a suicide attack.
Huda said he carried out the stabbing in revenge for the death of Mutaz Washha, also a PFLP member from Birzeit, who was killed by Israeli forces during an arrest operation last week.
The Shin Bet said Sunday’s stabbing highlighted the risks posed by undocumented Palestinians staying illegally in Israel and the need to close gaps in the security barrier.
*
IDF nabs top Hamas operative in West Bank
(JNS.org) Israeli soldiers operating in Hebron on Tuesday night arrested Ayyub al-Kawasma, a senior Hamas operative who has been on Israel’s wanted list since 1998, Israel Hayom reported. The joint operation of the Israel Defense Forces and Shin Bet security agency was carried out by the IDF’s elite Duvdevan unit.
Kawasma, 50, is believed to be a top leader in the Hamas military wing in the West Bank. Formally Israel’s most wanted terrorist, he is alleged to have taken part in organizing numerous terror attacks during the Second Intifada, which caused hundreds of Israeli casualties.
A statement by the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit said that Kawasma, who had been serving time in a Palestinian prison since 2010, was released some two weeks ago and immediately began planning terror attacks against Israel.
According to Palestinian eyewitnesses, Kawasma was arrested while attending a family event.
Meanwhile, a Qassam rocket fired from the northern Gaza Strip toward Israel on Tuesday night exploded on the Gaza side of the border.
*
Germany urged to resolve Greek Holocaust ransom issue
(JNS.org) The World Jewish Congress urged Germany to address a request by the Greek Jewish community of Thessaloniki to be paid back for a ransom it had surrendered to the Nazis when they occupied Greece during the Second World War.
In 1942, the Greek Jewish community paid 1.9 billion drachmas (about $61 billion today) to a Nazi commander for the release of about 10,000 Jews who were forced to perform hard labor on roads and railroads. About 50,000 Thessaloniki Jews were killed during the Holocaust.
The Jewish community of Thessaloniki first brought the request to return the money before Greek courts in 2007. This year, the Jewish community is suing Germany over the issue in the European Court of Human Rights in Strasbourg, although Germany’s Finance Ministry has so far rejected the request.
“Surely the German government, which has settled so many Holocaust-era claims righteously, can find a resolution for this claim, which the Jewish community of Thessaloniki in Greece has pressed for decades and is extensively documented,” World Jewish Congress President Ronald S. Lauder said Tuesday. “As German President Joachim Gauck makes an official visit to Greece this week, now is the time to bring closure to this episode.”
*
U.S.-funded Arab airline bans Israeli travelers, erases Israel off its maps
(JNS.org) Etihad Airways, the official airline of the United Arab Emirates and a recipient of U.S. Homeland Security money, refuses to allow Israelis onboard and has erased Israel from its flight maps, the New York Post reported.
According to the New York Post, the carrier on its official travel-route map shows the countries surrounding the Jewish state, including Jordan, Iraq, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon, and Cyprus, but not Israel nor its major cities.
As a partner with American Airlines, Etihad receives $425,000 a year from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security for a pre-clearance customs facility at the UAE’s Abu Dhabi International Airport, which allows U.S. citizens to bypass long security lines.
Additionally, Etihad refuses to transport Israelis. In 2010 the airline began teaching its flight attendants how to identify their “accents and traits,” the BBC reported. Etihad is the only airline that provides service between Abu Dhabi and New York, Chicago, and Washington, DC.
*
Egyptian court imposes a ban of all Hamas activities in the country
(JNS.org) An Egyptian court has banned all activities of Hamas, in another sign of increasing tension between the Palestinian terror group and the military-backed government in Egypt.
The Egyptian court also banned all “organizations or groups branching from, financed or supported by Hamas,” a judicial source told the Egyptian daily Al-Ahram.
Egyptian authorities have accused Hamas, which is an offshoot of the banned terror group Muslim Brotherhood, of supporting jihadists in the Sinai Peninsula.
Additionally, Egyptian authorities have accused former Muslim Brotherhood President Mohamed Morsi of collaborating with Hamas. Morsi, along with 36 other Muslim Brotherhood officials, are currently being prosecuted for charges of espionage with Hamas.
Recently, Egyptian officials also told Hamas that it would hold them responsible for any incidents along the Gaza border, and that it would not tolerate smuggling.
*
Preceding provided by JNS.org
—