Hosting Christian leaders, Israeli president laments persecution of Mideast minorities
(JNS.org) The persecution of Christians and other religious minorities in the Middle East is “a cause of great worry and pain,” Israeli President Reuven Rivlin said Tuesday upon his hosting of Israeli Christian leaders for a reception to mark the New Year.
During 2014, arguably one of the worst years in recent memory for the Middle East’s beleaguered Christian minority, hundreds of thousands of Christians were forced to flee their homes by the Islamic State terror group.
“Over the past months, we have been greatly concerned by the ongoing religious persecution and restrictions on freedom of worship for minorities in the Middle East,” Rivlin told the attendees, including nine heads of various churches in Israel. “Because of their faith, hundreds of thousands are being exiled, forcibly converted, attacked, and brutally murdered. … This is a cause of great worry and pain for all us.”
At the same event, Greek Patriarch of Jerusalem Theophilos III said that amid “persecution and war,” the world looks to “the communities of the Holy Land for renewed hope and inspiration.”
“In this region, we recognize the diversity of the peoples and understand that the harmonious coexistence of the Abrahamic faiths is essential to the integrity of the Holy Land,” he said.
Chaldean Catholic Archbishop Bashar Warda of Erbil, the largest city in Iraqi Kurdistan, recently told JNS that the displacement of Mideast Christians constitutes a “genocide.”
“It is genocide when you take over an area and strip people of their homes [and] their lives, and send them to an ambiguous future,” Warda said.
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Israeli college’s art exhibit promotes terrorism, critics say
(JNS.org) Students, organizations, and members of Knesset are fuming after Sapir Academic College in the southern Israeli city of Sderot allowed the display of an exhibition in its art school’s gallery that critics feel promotes the massacre of Jews and terrorism.
The exhibition, called “The Power of the Word,” includes three hamsas (palm-shaped amulets popular throughout the Middle East) created by artist Gad Wellnitz and decorated with the words “ISIS,” “Slaughter the Jews,” and “In blood and fire we will redeem Palestine.”
The exhibition also features a picture by artist David Riv in which the words “Jerusalem of Gold” are printed with the words “Jerusalem of Shit,” alongside images of Jews praying at the Western Wall.
Before the exhibition was opened on Tuesday, Likud MK Danny Danon approached Sapir College President Omri Yadlin and said, “It is shocking to see an academic institution in Israel displaying exhibitions that promote terrorism and killing Jews.”
The advocacy organization Im Tirtzu also approached Yadlin in an effort to stop the exhibition. “We are again bearing witness to anti-Zionist propaganda sponsored by academia under the guise of pluralism,” said Im Tirtzu’s director, Matan Peleg.
Sapir College defended the exhibition, saying it “includes works by some of the best artists in Israel, including Israel Prize laureates whose works have received institutional, public and governmental recognition.”
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IDF’s emergency readiness in jeopardy, state comptroller’s report says
(JNS.org) Israeli State Comptroller Yosef Shapira warned Monday that the Israel Defense Forces’ emergency readiness—especially pertaining to the reserves, wartime supplies, and equipment maintenance—is seriously compromised.
Shapira’s audit of the military was performed between January 2013 and March 2014. According to Army Radio, the report revealed a series of training deficiencies pertaining to reserves units in the ground forces. Reviewing the months leading up to last summer’s Operation Protective Edge in Gaza, for example, the report noted that the reserves did not receive regular training, and that the training that was offered failed to properly maintain the level of operational competence required from combat soldiers.
During 2013, the report said, only 75 percent of scheduled training exercises were actually held, a fact compounded by budgetary constraints that allowed the IDF to train only 80 percent of its troops.
The comptroller’s review found that the equipment stored in the military’s emergency warehouses was both inadequate and poorly maintained, further noting that the IDF’s emergency apparatus was understaffed.
“There are difficulties performing routine maintenance for combat equipment during times of peace, which therefore jeopardizes the [IDF’s] ability to efficiently shift to emergency mode,” the report said.
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Palestinian U.N. resolution fails to account for Israel’s security needs, U.S. says
(JNS.org) The U.S. said Monday that it does not support a draft statehood resolution that the Palestinians plan to introduce at the United Nations because the measure, which calls for Israeli withdrawal from the West Bank by 2017, does not take Israel’s security needs into account.
“We don’t think this resolution is constructive,” U.S. State Department spokesman Jeff Rathke told reporters. “We think it sets arbitrary deadlines for reaching a peace agreement and for Israel’s withdrawal from the West Bank, and those are more likely to curtail useful negotiations than to bring them to a successful conclusion. … Further, we think that the resolution fails to account for Israel’s legitimate security needs, and the satisfaction of those needs, of course, integral to a sustainable settlement.”
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu told visiting Indiana Governor Mike Pence on Monday that through the U.N. resolution, the Palestinian Authority is “seeking to impose on us a diktat that would undermine Israel’s security, put its future in peril.”
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Paris suburb honors jailed Palestinian terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti
(JNS.org) The Paris suburb of Aubervilliers has made jailed Palestinian terrorist leader Marwan Barghouti, who is serving several life sentences in an Israeli prison for murder, an honorary citizen of the city.
In a statement, the Aubervilliers city council said Barghouti “symbolizes the Palestinian cause” and is a “man of peace and dialogue.”
In a letter to Aubervilliers Mayor Pascal Beaudet, Roger Cukierman—president of CRIF, an umbrella group representing the French Jewish community—said he is “shocked” by the decision, noting that Barghouti is a convicted terrorist serving several life sentences.
“Your resolution fails to mention that the Palestinian terrorist was indicted by a civil court for murder and attempted murder in a terrorist organization under his command. He was sentenced May 20, 2004 to five life imprisonment sentences for five murders and 40 years for attempted murder by a suicide bomber,” Cukierman wrote.
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14,000 Nigerian Christian pilgrims visit Israel
(JNS.org) More than 14,000 Nigerian Christians have embarked on a pilgrimage to Israel for the Christmas season, spotlighting growing ties between Israel and Nigeria.
Speaking at a sendoff ceremony last week at Nigeria’s Murtala Mohammed International Airport, John Kennedy Opara, the head of the Nigerian Christian Pilgrims Commission, said that the pilgrimage will be a “moral and spiritual transformation” for the Christian visitors, AllAfrica.com reported.
“Christmas is all about the celebration of our Lord Jesus Christ and you people are going to celebrate him in his own birth place. It is something that many people would love to celebrate in the Holy Land,” Opara said.
Last year, Israel and Nigeria inked a bilateral aviation deal during a visit to the Jewish state by Nigerian President Goodluck Jonathan, providing for direct flights between the two countries and making it easier for Nigerian Christian pilgrims to travel to the Holy Land.
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Articles from JNS.org appear on San Diego Jewish World through the generosity of Dr. Bob and Mao Shillman