JNS news briefs: July 24, 2014

Pro-Palestinian rioters attack Maccabi Haifa soccer players in Austria
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) A pre-season friendly match between the Israeli Maccabi Haifa and French Lille OSC soccer teams in Bischofshofen, Austria, on Wednesday was interrupted when pro-Palestinian protesters burst onto the field and attacked the Israeli players.

Throughout the second half, the demonstrators—which included Turkish immigrants—cried out anti-Israel slogans. At the 85th minute of the game, they rushed the field and began beating the Maccabi Haifa players, including defender Dekel Keinan and midfielder Idan Vered. The players defended themselves, and goalkeeper Vladimir Stojkovic, a Serb, pushed three of the protesters.

Security at the venue was in the hands of a small, unprepared team and a few police officers, who eventually managed to get the rioters under control. The French players fled the field for the locker room.

The riot didn’t end on the grass. Outside the field, another 10 or so pro-Palestinian protesters were waiting, trying to force their way in. They threw chairs and other objects at the Maccabi Haifa players, one of which hit striker Shimon Abuhatzira, who responded by charging the rioters.

After a few minutes, additional police officers arrived and escorted the Maccabi players back to their hotel. The team is currently under heavy security. “It was a miracle no one was injured,” one team member said.
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Hamas leader: we won’t accept cease-fire if Gaza blockade not lifted
(JNS.org) The terrorist group Hamas will not accept a cease-fire with Israel if the agreement does not include the lifting of the blockade on Gaza, Hamas political bureau chief Khaled Mashaal said on Wednesday.

Mashaal’s statements came after U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said progress was being made on a cease-fire.

“The resistance will not give up its arms unless Israel gives up its arms and the occupation ends,” Mashaal said, according to Israel Hayom.
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FAA lifts ban on Israel flights
(JNS.org) Late on Wednesday, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) lifted its ban on flights by American carriers in and out of Israel’s Ben Gurion International Airport near Tel Aviv.

The FAA said in a statement that before deciding to end the ban, which was in effect for 36 hours, it “worked with its U.S. government counterparts to assess the security situation in Israel and carefully reviewed both significant new information and measures the government of Israel is taking to mitigate potential risks to civil aviation.”

“The FAA’s primary mission and interest are the protection of people traveling on U.S. airlines. The agency will continue to closely monitor the very fluid situation around Ben Gurion airport and will take additional actions, as necessary,” FAA said.

U.S. Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) had accused the Obama administration of an “economic boycott on Israel” through politically motivating the FAA ban, which came just as Secretary of State Kerry traveled to the Middle East to try to broker a cease-fire between Israel and Hamas.

“The facts suggest that President [Barack] Obama has just used a federal regulatory agency to launch an economic boycott on Israel, in order to try to force our ally to comply with his foreign-policy demands,” Cruz said in a statement.

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U.N. Human Rights Council probe on Israel a ‘travesty,’ Netanyahu says
(JNS.org) Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu slammed the decision by the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) to launch an inquiry into Israeli human rights violations in Gaza, calling on the council to instead investigate Hamas’s war crimes.

“The decision today by the UNHRC is a travesty and should be rejected by decent people everywhere,” Netanyahu said in a statement.

“The UNHRC should be launching an investigation into Hamas’s decision to turn hospitals into military command centers, use schools as weapons depots and place missile batteries next to playgrounds, private homes and mosques,” he added.

In an emergency session, the 46-member human rights council in Geneva voted to adopt a resolution initiated by the Palestinians. Among the nations launching the probe were several Arab and Muslim countries—including notorious human rights violators such as Pakistan and Saudi Arabia—as well as China, Russia, and several Latin American and African countries.

The United States was the only country to vote against the resolution. Abstaining from the vote were a number of European countries—including France, the U.K., Germany, Italy, the Czech Republic, Ireland, Estonia, and Romania—and Asian nations such as Japan and South Korea.

The U.S. Ambassador to the UNHRC, Keith Harper, blasted the resolution, calling it “destructive” and noting that it lacked “any semblance of balance” because it included no mention of Hamas rockets launched at Israeli civilians.
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ISIS seizes Iraqi monastery and expels monks
(JNS.org) After forcing Christians in the city of Mosul to convert, die or leave, jihadists from the Islamic State of Iraq and Greater Syria (ISIS) terror group have seized the ancient Christian Mar Behnam Monastery outside of Mosul and expelled its monks.

The Mar Behnam Monastery was established as an act of penance in the 4th century CE by the Assyrian King Senchareb II after he killed his two children Behnam and Sarah for converting to Christianity. The monastery is run by the Syriac Catholic Church and was visited by thousands of Christian and even Muslim pilgrims each year as a place of healing and fertility.

“You have no place here anymore; you have to leave immediately,” the monks were told by ISIS jihadists, who forced them to flee and abandon all their possessions, AFP reported.

According to local Christians, about nine monks worked in the monastery and after being expelled, the monks were forced to walk for several miles until being rescued by Kurdish fighters.
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Dershowitz: J Street can’t ‘claim to be pro-Israel’ after pulling out of Boston rally
(JNS.org) J Street—the self-labeled “pro-Israel, pro-peace” lobby—“can no longer credibly claim to be pro-Israel” after pulling out of an Israel solidarity rally sponsored by Jewish Community Relations Council (JCRC) of Boston last week, Harvard Law School professor and pro-Israel activist Alan Dershowitz wrote in an op-ed for the Jerusalem Post.

J Street’s Boston director, Shaina Wasserman, wrote in a letter to JCRC Executive Director Jeremy Burton that it decided to pull out of the July 17 Stand With Israel rally because the event did not include speakers who represented the group’s “pro-Israel, pro-peace perspective” and that “the feedback you solicited from me was barely reflected in the rally’s messaging points.”

“What was missing for us in this rally, and what ultimately precluded our co-sponsorship, was that despite our efforts, there was no space made to raise the issues that follow from our commitment to Israel’s Jewish and democratic future,” the letter stated.

In his July op-ed, Dershowitz called J Street’s decision “total nonsense and an insult to those who spoke at the rally.”

“J Street has whined about being excluded from the mainstream Jewish community, but it is J Street that has excluded itself from joining in community activities such as this rally,” Dershowitz wrote.

“If you are pro-Israel, you do not belong in J Street, because J Street can no longer credibly claim to be pro-Israel,” he added. “If there was ever any doubt about that, J Street’s actions in refusing to join the Stand With Israel Rally should resolve them. So if you want to stand with Israel, stand up against J Street and stand with organizations that support Israel during times of crisis.”

The JCRC’s Burton said he was “deeply disappointed in J Street’s decision to withdraw [from the rally] as a sponsor.”

“This event was not and should not have been the place for airing and debating perspectives on how to achieve our shared hopes for Israel,” Burton said in a statement. “It was a place to present and convey shared core principles in a moment of conflict. We have made extraordinary efforts to bring J Street’s voice to the table in Boston. We have sought, not always successfully, to present the diversity of views on important issues in ways that almost no other Jewish community in this country does.”

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Thai migrant worker killed in Israel by Gaza rocket
(JNS.org) A Thai foreign worker has been killed after being hit by a rocket fired from Gaza into Israel. The rocket hit a greenhouse in which the man was working at the time. Meanwhile, the rest of Israel continued to come under rocket fire.

An Israel Defense Forces helicopter flew the Thai man to the Barzilai Medical Center in Ashkelon. But the man was pronounced dead at the hospital, reported the Jerusalem Post.

“Hamas’s rocket capabilities are very alarming; a rocket once a week at Ben Gurion Airport is enough to wear Israel down and this is without taking into account the arms Hamas could obtain in the future,” said former Shin Bet Chief Avi Dichter, reported Yedioth Ahronoth.

“Without cement shelters the next tragedy is only a matter of time. I call on the government to get its act together and send shelters to the farmers in the south. Abandoning the agricultural areas now will lead to huge economic damage and to a shortage of produce,” said MK Zvulun Kalfa (Habayit Hayehudi), the chairman of the Knesset’s agricultural lobby.

Meanwhile, the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit has announced that three Israeli paratroopers were killed in Gaza on Wednesday: Lt. Paz Eliyahu, 22, Staff Sgt. Lee Matt, 19, and Staff Sgt. Shachar Dauber, 20.

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