Massive Times Square billboard calls for return of missing Israeli teens
(JNS.org) A massive new billboard in Times Square calling for the return of the three missing Israeli teens has been launched by a local New York synagogue.
The 40-foot-by-40-foot digital ad was purchased by the Young Israel of the West Side congregation for an estimated $15,000, according to the New York Post.
The ad airs for 15 seconds twice every hour while displaying the text: “These boys are not soldiers. They are not fighters. They are not violent. These boys are our sons. Our brothers. Our grandchildren. Our nephews. Our friends. Please help create global awareness.”
The ad also includes the photographs of the missing teens – Naftali Frankel, Gilad Shaar and Eyal Yifrah – along with the hashtage #bringbackourboys.
“I just think word has to get out,” Young Israel of the West Side Rabbi Dovid Cohen said. “Anything to keep the story alive, that’s what we’re going to do.”
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Brussels Jewish museum shooter to be extradited to Belgium
(JNS.org) A French court has ordered that Mehdi Nemmouche, the suspect behind the Brussels Jewish museum shooting last month, should be extradited to Belgium, where he would be tried on murder charges, the BBC reported.
The shooting at a Brussels’ Jewish Museum on May 24 left four victims dead, including an Israeli couple.
According to French authorities, the 29-year-old French-Algerian terrorism suspect was arrested and found to be in possession of a Kalashnikov automatic rifle that was wrapped in the flag of the terror group Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS), as well as a handgun.
Prosecutors say that Nemmouche spent a year in Syria fighting with jihadists before returning to Europe in March. The suspect had also spent several years in a French jail for armed robbery as well.
In a statement, World Jewish Congress President Ronald Lauder praised the French court’s decision, saying that he has “every confidence in the ability of the Belgian judiciary to conduct a fair and expeditious trial.”
“The truth will come out in the end, and justice needs to be done,” Lauder said.
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Obama to Peres: US attorney-general will review Pollard case
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) President Shimon Peres met with U.S. President Barack Obama on Wednesday at the White House in Washington on his last foreign trip before leaving office next month.
At Wednesday’s meeting, Peres asked Obama to free imprisoned Israeli spy Jonathan Pollard.
“I offered a certain proposal, and President Obama promised that the attorney-general [Eric Holder] would review it,” Peres said after the meeting.
Peres revealed that it had been submitted at the request of the Pollard family. Remarking on the chances of Pollard being released, “if I said ‘optimistic,’ I’d be saying more than what President Obama said,” Peres said.
After days of silence, Obama also publicly commented for the first time on the recent kidnapping of three Israeli teens in Gush Etzion, saying that the U.S. intends to help Israel “in order to return the kidnapped teens to their homes.”
On Thursday, Peres, 90, will receive the Congressional Gold Medal and deliver an address to Congress. Peres’ seven-year term in office comes to an end next month, when he will be replaced by Reuven Rivlin, who was elected two weeks ago.
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Egyptian Christian gets six-year prison sentence for ‘insulting Islam’
(JNS.org) An Egyptian court has sentenced a Coptic Christian man to six years in jail for “insulting Islam,” in the latest blasphemy case targeting Egyptian Christians.
Kirollos Shawki, 29, was convicted of blasphemy by a court in Luxor for “contempt of religion” and “stirring up sectarian strife,” his lawyer said, AFPreported.
Shawki had apparently posted a picture of the Prophet Mohammed with an “insulting comment” on his Facebook page.
Earlier this month, a court in Luxor sentenced a female Coptic Christian teacher to six months in jail after her students accused her of “evangelizing” and insulting Islam.
Egyptian Christians have been disproportionately targeted in blasphemy cases. According to the U.S. State Department, nearly 40 percent of the defendants in blasphemy cases in Egypt are Christians, despite the fact that Christians constitute about only 10 percent of the population.
Islamists have also increasingly targeted Christian churches, homes, and businesses, in addition to abducting Christians for ransom or conversion to Islam.
“In only one province (El-Minia), its Coptic bishop recently revealed that between June 30 and the present time, he recorded 90 kidnap cases of Copts, some of whom have been killed even after their families paid the demanded ransom,” Halim Meawad—the Egyptian-born co-founder of Coptic Solidarity, a U.S.-based international Coptic Christian human rights organization— recently told JNS.org.
In a wave of violence last August, the Muslim Brotherhood and its supporters attacked more than 200 churches, Christian businesses, and private homes, leaving at least seven Christians killed and hundreds injured.
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CAMERA sends college students to Israel to learn about media bias
(JNS.org) The Committee for Accuracy in Middle East Reporting in America (CAMERA) media watchdog group is sending two-dozen college students to help “strengthen their Israel activism” on campus.
The CAMERA Israel Advocacy and Leadership Training Mission to Israel will enable students hailing from the U.S., Canada, and South America to meet with a number of Israeli media experts, including Mark Regev, spokesman for Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu; Yigal Carmon, founder of the Middle East Media Research Institute (MEMRI); and Arab-Israeli Jerusalem Post reporter Khaled Abu Toameh.
Additionally, the students will take part in a geopolitical tour of Jerusalem, and visit historical sites in Tzfat and Mount Hermon in the Golan Heights.
“Our mission will empower the students to feel confident in their understanding of the situation in Israel from the ground, leading them to continue and strengthen their Israel activism on their respective campuses when they return in the fall,” Aviva Slomich, director of the CAMERA Campus Department, said in a statement.
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Israel becomes 20th member of Paris Club of creditor nations
(JNS.org) Israel on Tuesday was accepted into the Paris Club of creditor nations, a group of countries that negotiates deals to help poor countries with large debts. The group also includes the U.S.
The informal 20-country organization was created in 1956 and has worked out loan deals for 90 countries. The group has come to 429 debt agreements totaling about 573 billion euros ($781 billion). In some cases, the organization can cancel or restructure country debts rather than allow a government to default.
The announcement that Israel has joined the organization “shows Israel’s economic might and presents additional proof that Israel’s place is alongside the strongest countries,” said Israeli Finance Minister Yair Lapid, reported The Associated Press.
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