Arab terrorist drives car into Jerusalem crowd, killing 1 in another rail attack
(Israel Hayom/Exclusive to JNS.org) An Arab terrorist intentionally ran his vehicle into a crowd of people near the Shimon Hatzadik light rail station in Jerusalem on Wednesday afternoon, killing one person and wounding at least 13 others. The terrorist was shot dead by security forces shortly afterward.
Wednesday’s attack took place near the site of a similar attack two weeks ago, in which two people, a baby girl and a woman from Ecuador, were killed when an Arab terrorist intentionally slammed his car into a crowd at the Ammunition Hill light rail station.
Three people were seriously wounded in the latest attack, five suffered moderate wounds, and five others were lightly wounded. Border Police officers who were in the area pursued the terrorist, who eventually emerged from his vehicle carrying a metal bar and tried to attack security personnel before being shot and killed.
In addition to pedestrians, a number of cars were hit by the terrorist’s vehicle.
Hamas praised the attack, calling it “heroic.”
“We call for more such… operations,” Hamas official Fawzi Barhoum said.
The attacker was identified as Ibrahim al-Akri, a resident of eastern Jerusalem’s Shuafat neighborhood. Akri’s affiliation with Hamas was known to the Israeli defense establishment.
Arab rioters temporarily shut Temple Mount to visitors
(JNS.org) Masked Arab rioters threw rocks and shot fireworks at Israeli security personnel on the Temple Mount in Jerusalem on Wednesday, in the latest outbreak of violence at the sensitive site.
The Temple Mount was temporarily closed to tourists and Jewish visitors due to the riot. It was later reopened after the riot was dispersed. Additional security forces were called to the scene to restore order.
During the closure, a delegation of Arab Members of Knesset, including Hanin Zoabi (Balad), attempted to enter the Temple Mount, but were barred from doing so. This prompted Zoabi to launch a verbal assault on Israeli security personnel. The delegation, including Zoabi, was later permitted to enter the Temple Mount after it was reopened, according to Israel Hayom.
The Temple Mount has recently been the scene of a number of similar riots. Last week, Israeli activist Rabbi Yehudah Glick, a prominent proponent of allowing Jews to pray on the Temple Mount, was shot by an Arab assailant outside the Begin Heritage Center in Jerusalem and was seriously wounded. The perpetrator was later killed in a shootout with police who had sought to arrest him.
Druze ‘an inseparable part of Israeli society,’ housing minister says
(JNS.org) Israeli Housing and Construction Minister Uri Ariel (Habayit Hayehudi) met with Druze leaders on Tuesday to mark the decision to lease the Nabi Shuayb holy site, commonly known as Jethro’s Tomb, to the Nabi Shuayb nonprofit association.
Jethro, the father-in-law of Moses, is known as Shuayb in Islam and is a major figure in the Druze religion. He is believed to have been buried near Tiberias in northern Israel.
Three months ago, the Israel Land Authority, which Ariel heads, decided to lease Jethro’s Tomb to the Druze. Under the terms of the deal, the state will lease the site and an additional 49 dunams (12 acres) of land to the Druze for a symbolic sum of 18 shekels ($4.74).
The decision is expected to end a years-long dispute over use of the site and respond to the religious needs of the Druze, as well as to acknowledge the location as a heritage site. Ariel said during the meeting that “the Druze community is an inseparable part of Israeli society and in recent years has made a real effort to integrate its children into the public sector,” Israel Hayom reported.
Prince Charles to Muslim leaders: stop ‘indescribable’ persecution of Christians
(JNS.org) Prince Charles called on Muslim leaders throughout the world to stop the “indescribable tragedy” of the persecution of Middle East Christians.
“It is an indescribable tragedy that Christianity is now under such threat in the Middle East—an area where Christians have lived for 2,000 years, and across which Islam spread in 700 AD, with people of different faiths living together peaceably for centuries,” Prince Charles said in a video statement ahead of the release of a report on religious freedom by the Catholic charity group Aid to the Church in Need.
Reflecting on his own faith as a Christian, Prince Charles called on religious communities to work together to stamp out extremism and uphold freedom of religion.
“The horrendous and heart-breaking events in Iraq and Syria have brought the subject of religious freedom and persecution to the forefront of the world’s news,” he said. “We have learnt with mounting despair of the expulsion of Christians, Muslims, and Yazidis from towns and cities that their ancestors have occupied for centuries.”
“Sadly, incidents of violence in Iraq and Syria are not isolated,” added Prince Charles. “They are found throughout some, though not all, of the Middle East; in some African nations; and in many countries across Asia.”
According to the religious freedom report, Christians—especially those in the Middle East—are the most persecuted faith group in the world.
The report listed 20 countries with high levels of impairment of religious freedom, including 14 countries linked to Islamic extremism: Afghanistan, Central African Republic, Egypt, Iran, Iraq, Libya, Maldives, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Somalia, Sudan, Syria and Yemen. The other six countries on the list have authoritarian regimes, such as China and North Korea.
The report also noted that Jews in Western Europe have been subjected to increased violence and other persecution, forcing many of them to immigrate to Israel.
Sinai-based terror group denies pledging loyalty to Islamic State
(JNS.org) The Sinai-based terrorist group Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis, which has been locked in an ongoing battle with the Egyptian military, in a Twitter message on Tuesday denied reports that it has pledged loyalty to the Islamic State.
“The statement that has been circulated in the media and is sourced to us, regarding the group’s declaration of allegiance to the Caliphate of the Muslims, [has] nothing to do with us,” said a tweet from a page that claims to be the official account of Ansar Bayt al-Maqdis,Reuters reported.
Over the last few months, there has been speculation that the Sinai group has had increased contact and links with the Islamic State terror group. Several decapitated bodies have been found outside of towns in the Sinai, which has been a hallmark of Islamic State.
Meanwhile, officials from Egypt, Saudi Arabia, Kuwait, and the United Arab Emirates (UAE) are exploring a regional military pact to confront Islamic extremists throughout the Middle East, and also to show unity against Iranian influence. A Gulf official said that those countries are currently discussing ways to handle the situations in Libya and Yemen as well as the “ongoing on wider cooperation on how to deal with extremists in the region,” the Associated Press reported.
Currently, Saudi Arabia and the UAE are involved in U.S.-led airstrikes against Islamic State in Syria and Iraq. Egypt and the UAE have also launched airstrikes against Islamic terrorists in Libya.
Palestinians to submit U.N. Security Council resolution, official says
(JNS.org) The Palestinian Authority (PA) is looking to submit a resolution to the United Nations Security Council by the end of November, calling for an end date of “Israel’s occupation” in the West Bank, a senior Palestinian official said Tuesday.
The threat of a PA resolution comes amid a stall in the U.S.-led effort to foster peace talks between Israel and the Palestinians.
“No other solution [to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict] has been proposed by the United States,” Wassel Abu Yusef, a senior official in the Palestine Liberation Organization, told AFP.
According to Saeb Erekat, a senior PA negotiator, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry recently informed him that the U.S. would veto any Security Council resolutions.
“I don’t know if he [Kerry] used the term veto, [but] he said [going to] the Security Council is not an option. He was very clear with me,” Erekat told AFP.
Yet there has been recent speculation that the U.S. may not veto a Palestinian resolution. Tension between Israel and the U.S. has increased of late, including a recent anonymous U.S. official calling Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu a “chickenshit” amid American frustration with Jewish construction beyond the pre-1967 lines.
Hezbollah’s Hassan Nasrallah: our rockets can shut down Ben Gurion Airport
(JNS.org) The leader of Hezbollah, Hassan Nasrallah, said Tuesday that the Lebanese terror group’s rockets are capable of reaching all of Israel and would cause the closure of both the Haifa port and Ben Gurion International Airport in any future conflict with the Jewish state.
“You should close all of your airports and your ports because there is no place in the land of occupied Palestine that the resistance’s rockets cannot reach,” Nasrallah told Lebanon’s Daily Star.
Nasrallah also denied rumors that Hezbollah is currently too preoccupied with the Syrian civil war to be able to fight against Israel effectively.
“They know that going to war with the resistance will be very costly because we are more determined, stronger, more experienced … and we are capable of achieving such accomplishments,” he said.
Pope Francis praises Bar-Ilan University for commitment to interfaith relations
(JNS.org) Pope Francis praised Israel’s Bar-Ilan University for its commitment to fostering interfaith dialogue in a meeting with the university’s president.
Bar-Ilan President Rabbi Prof. Daniel Hershkowitz visited the Vatican last week with a delegation of South American and Spanish businesspeople. Hershkowitz said that “as a microcosm of Israeli society, Bar-Ilan’s doors are open to students of all races and religions,” Yedioth Ahronoth reported.
“Through a variety of ongoing dialogue programs aimed at fostering understanding and acceptance, Bar-Ilan University has been working to bridge gaps between various sectors of Israeli society for many years. It is, therefore, a deep privilege to be meeting with and honoring the pope, who has taken it upon himself to undertake this tremendous task on a worldwide scale,” he said.
Pope Francis replied that “we are the sons of Abraham and we have the privilege and the responsibility to guide humankind on the path to peace.”
During the meeting, Bar-Ilan also gave the pope its highest honor—the Award of Distinction—for his commitment to interfaith dialogue, peace between nations and peoples, and human rights.
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