Belgian lawmakers visit Judea and Samaria
(JNS.org) A delegation of Belgian parliamentarians visited Judea and Samaria on Thursday as guests of the Shomron Regional Council. The visit was coordinated by the council’s foreign relations committee.
During the visit, delegation head Senator Anke Vandermeersch noted that she was “surprised to see how different the reality here is compared to what we are shown by the European media, ”Israel Hayom reported.
Vandermeersch, a 1992 Miss Universe finalist, agreed to head pro-Israel public diplomacy efforts in Belgium and in the European Parliament, in an effort to counter anti-Israel boycott campaigns.
“This is another important step for the settlement enterprise and for the State of Israel,” Shomron Regional Council head Gershon Mesika said.
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Al-Quds University president steps down days after pro-Hamas rally on campus
(JNS.org) Sari Nusseibeh, the president of the Palestinian Al-Quds University, has announced his retirement just days after a pro-Hamas rally occurred on its eastern Jerusalem campus.
In a statement issued by Al-Quds University, the school said that Nusseibeh, 65, is stepping down due to reaching the retirement age at the end of the academic year. He will be replaced by Dr. Imad Abu Kishk, the head of the school’s Political Science Department. But Nusseibeh will continue to remain as a faculty member in the Philosophy Department.
On Sunday, several hundred demonstrators gathered at the eastern Jerusalem campus of Al-Quds to support Hamas. According to independent journalist Tom Gross, who photographed the rally, the demonstrators were seen with black ski masks and carrying replicas of rockets. A Facebook page by the rally’s organizers called it the “the loyal—on the path of the great leaders” in commemoration of slain Hamas terrorists Ahmed Yassin, Abdul Aziz Rantisi and Ibrahim Maqadmeh, who were all assassinated by Israel.
A previous rally in support of another Palestinian terror group, Islamic Jihad, occurred on the Al-Quds campus in November, leading to a suspension in ties between Al-Quds and Brandeis University.
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Vatican: Pope Francis trip to Israel still on despite foreign ministry strike
(JNS.org) Pope Francis’s highly anticipated trip to Israel in May will go on as scheduled despite worries over the effect of the Israeli Foreign Ministry strike.
In a statement, Vatican spokesman Father Federico Lombardi said the release of the schedule is confirmation that the visit is “continuing as planned.”
According to the trip’s schedule, Pope Francis will arrive in Jordan on May 24 to meet with Jordan’s King Abdullah, conduct a Mass in Amman, and meet with Syrian refugees. The next day, Pope Francis will fly to Bethlehem to meet with Palestinian Authority President Mahmoud Abbas, conduct a Mass at Manger Square (the traditional birthplace of Jesus), and greet Palestinian children.
Later on May 25, Pope Francis will travel to Jerusalem to have a private meeting with the Patriarch of Constantinople Bartholomew I, the head of the Eastern Orthodox Church, where the two will sign a joint declaration in honor of the 50th anniversary of the Jerusalem meeting between Pope Paul VI and Patriarch Athenagoras.
Later in May, the pope will visit the Western Wall, Mount Herzl, and Yad Vashem in Jerusalem. He will also meet with Israel’s two chief rabbis, President Shimon Peres, and Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.
Latin Patriarch Fouad Twal, the top Catholic official in the Holy Land, told reporters Thursday that the meeting between Pope Francis and Batholomew, a sign of Christian unity, is one of the pontiff’s top priorities for the trip, and that Pope Francis will also seek to promote peace and understanding among Jews, Muslims, and Christians.
“Pope Francis is coming to visit three political realities—Jordan, Palestine and Israel,” said Twal, the Jerusalem Post reported. “In each place he will meet with the heads of state, encouraging one and all in fair government for the benefit of all citizens and to work together to overcome all obstacles that stand in the way of the welfare of all and the prosperity of all.”
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Armenians accuse Turkey of aiding al-Qaeda rebels in attack on Syrian Christian village
(JNS.org) Armenian leaders have accused Turkey of aiding al-Qaeda-affiliated rebel groups during their attack on a largely Armenian Christian village in northern Syria.
“Turkey’s facilitation of al-Qaeda affiliated foreign fighters and their attacks on innocent civilians in Syria undermines ongoing US and international efforts to bring peace to a country ravaged by violence for far too long,” Ken Hachikian, chairman of the Armenian National Committee of America, wrote in a letter to President Barack Obama.
Last weekend, rebel forces from the al-Qaeda-linked al-Nusra Front and Islamic State of Iraq and Syria took control of the small Armenian Christian village in northern Syria during fighting with the Syrian army, forcing most of the residents to flee.
According to the Armenian daily newspaper Panorama, Armenian President Sezh Sargsyan drew parallels between the current situation for Kessab’s Armenian Christians and the Armenian genocide in the early 20th century under the Ottoman Turks.
“The third deportation of Kessab Armenians today is a serious challenge to ethnic minority rights protection mechanisms of the 21st century,” Sargsyan said at the World Forum Convention Center in The Hague. “I think everyone should realize that these parallels should sober all the sides.”
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Isracoin, the new Israeli ‘bitcoin,’ to be released next week
(JNS.org) Israeli developers are preparing to release their own version of the digital currency bitcoin, dubbed Isracoin, next Wednesday.
The six developers are all associated with the social protests that occurred in Israel in the summer of 2011 and with the country’s open-source community. They have mined 10 percent of the total amount of planned Isracoins, 480 million out of 4.8 billion, which will be distributed based on a plan specified at isracoin.org.il.
“The first phase of the plan calls for distribution of 500 Isracoins to every business that adopts it as a means of payment, up to 50,000 businesses. This will happen one month before the second phase, in order to prepare as many businesses as possible for the day the general public receives the virtual coins,” the developers said on their website. The second phase will distribute “the coins to every verified Israeli citizen, up to a maximum of 2,850,000 people,” they said.
“The problem with the Israeli economy is over-concentration. A few banks control most assets, and these banks wield great influence over political parties. This expresses itself in high commission rates and in non-competitive services,” the developers added, according to Haaretz.
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