Rachel Frenkel, mother of kidnapped teen, tells UNHRC that she is living a ‘nightmare’
(JNS.org) Rachel Frenkel, the mother of one of the kidnapped Israeli teens, told the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) that she is living “every mother’s nightmare” as she urged the international body to do more to help rescue her son Naftali, along with two other teens abducted on June 12th.
“My son texted me — said he’s on his way home — and then he’s gone. Every mother’s nightmare is waiting and waiting endlessly for her child to come home,” Frenkel told the UNHRC.
Frenkel, who was joined by the mothers of Gilad Shaer and Eyal Yifrah, described how her son “loved to play guitar and basketball.”
Frenkel, who was given floor time by the NGO UN Watch, addressed the UNHRC during its “Agenda Item 7” debate, which at each UNHRC session mandates a discussion of Israel’s human rights record. The UNHRC is widely criticized as being an anti-Israel and anti-Semitic body.
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Security prisoners indicted over plot to abduct Israeli soldiers
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) Five Palestinian security prisoners were indicted Monday for plotting the abduction of Israeli soldiers with aim of using them as bargaining chips to ensure the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners.
The five were arraigned before the Beersheba District Court on multiple conspiracy charges, affiliation with a terror organization, aiding and abetting an enemy agent and contacting a foreign agent.
According to the Southern District Prosecution, in 2007, Haytham Salahiah, a security prisoner serving two consecutive life sentences, began conspiring with four other prisoners held in maximum prisons. Salahiah allegedly used media reports to gather intelligence and plan the abduction, which was outlined in great detail in notebooks found in his cell.
The indictment stated that evidence suggested the abduction was to be funded by Hamas. The five planned to demand the release of 477 Palestinian security prisoners in exchange for the return of any Israeli.
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Sheldon Adelson to donate $25 million to Ariel U.
(JNS.org) U.S. businessman and philanthropist Sheldon Adelson, along with his wife Miriam, will donate $25 million to Israel’s Ariel University located in Judea and Samaria.
The donation is for the university’s School of Health Sciences department, which enrolls nearly 1,200 students of the school’s nearly 14,000 students. The school is embarking on a ambitious expansion plan that includes the establishment a regional medical center that will service the area’s Jewish and Arab populations.
“All my years in business have taught me that when a crack opens up in one place you don’t just need to seal it, you need to strengthen the entire wall, and sometimes the entire building,” Sheldon Adelson said in a statement issued by the university.
“The many attacks on settlement in Judea and Samaria are connected to the long struggle against the State of Israel since its founding, and even before that,” he said. “The donation to Ariel University is about building a Zionist wall in place of the crack.”
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Israeli police: enough evidence to investigate Arab MK Zoabi for incitement
(JNS.org) Israeli police say there is enough evidence to investigate Arab-Israeli MK Haneen Zoabi for incitement over controversial statements she recently made about the three kidnapped Israeli teens.
Israeli police received several complaints after Zoabi said the kidnappers were not terrorists. Police authorities have passed their opinion to Attorney-General Yehuda Weinstein, who will conduct the investigation.
“They are people that cannot see any way to change their reality, and they are forced to use these means until Israeli society wises up a bit and sees and feels the suffering of the other,” Zoabi said in an interview with Radio Tel Aviv.
Zoabi, who is a member of the Arab nationalist party Balad, has had a controversial political career. She has been an outspoken opponent of Israel and participated in the 2010 flotilla that tried to break the naval blockade on Gaza.
“I didn’t break any law, rather, I am fulfilling my moral, human and political obligation to fight against oppression and for justice,” Zoabi said in response to the police statement, the Jerusalem Post reported.
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